Rewritten Promise
by Beloved Princess
Summary: When an unexpected breakup comes her way, Eve wonders about her ever-changing life. But when a little boy runs up to her, claiming that she can read his book, her view on life changes. She never thought by reading it, she'd be thrown into a jungle of surprises and have to rethink her 'Life sucks' attitude. Accepting OCs.
1. Losing Grip

"I hope you're actually over this time. I skipped school to come here." Eve moved aside to invite her brother, Sindri, into the apartment she formerly shared with her boyfriend. Boxes sat on every chair and table, mismatched shoes and clothes were crammed into a boy's shoulder bag, and Banana Yoshimoto's _Kitchen_ lay on the pullout couch. "Love the décor. Haven't seen something this messy since your last breakup with Caleb."

Eve rolled her eyes and chucked a sweatshirt into a box. "Are you going to help me or not?"

Sindri grabbed one of the heavier boxes and pulled it to his chest. His nose ring looked duller in the table lamp and she could say the same for his appearance. He found his first gray hair last week. That didn't do much to heighten his self-confidence. Despite her suggestions of hair dye.

"Guess you're not gonna tell me about it," he said and held the door open with his boot. "Where's he now? I'd enjoy knocking some of his teeth out _for money_."

She twirled her fingers through her brown-blonde hair and laughed. Caleb would never turn down a dare for money. It was a hobby of his and helped pay for his tattoos. He had a sleeve-in-progress that went from his shoulder to elbow. She only accommodated a bottle of poison on her wrist since their relationship.

Thinking about Caleb was only trouble. Yet it was tear-grueling to stop remembering everything about him.

"Milan. He's visiting his extended family."

"And you didn't go?"

"Yeah, visiting my ex-boyfriend's family is _totally _not awkward."

Sindri snorted at her and they headed with bags in hand to the stairs. "I thought you would've had something planned, you know, for those three-years he's been stuck with you."

Eve gave him a look that could split steel. "Things change."

"Faster than they seem," he retorted and shoved her stuff in the trunk, returning to the door. Eve stood beside the car for a few moments, fingers tracing the bottle's shape on her wrist. _She_ had gotten it when Caleb dared her. "Are you coming or no? I don't think it's possible to lift all your junk by myself."

She pushed past him, adrenaline racing her up the stairs. If Caleb cared, he wouldn't have booked the first flight out of Tokyo and told her to have her shit out before he came back from the trip.

It was all his fault. She couldn't have saved their relationship even if she tried. Things can sometimes end as effortlessly as a page ripped out of a novel, concluding the story.

The question is sprung forward. How is a story finished when it's barely been started?

Sindri jogged for the door again with another container. He was probably trying to finish up with her and catch one of his afternoon college classes.

She would've graduated from high school this year. But she dropped out two years ago with the persuading from Caleb. Rumors still cloud her every move by saying that she got pregnant and married a millionaire. Caleb and she laughed over it one year, joking that he was only a rich man by his tattoos.

Eve abandoned her apartment keys on the counter and took her last possessions.

Screw romance.

* * *

Later in the day, once her belongings were moved into Sindri's guestroom and he made it in time for his last class, she grabbed a takeout bag of sushi and went on her way. Evening clouds slower than turtles.

Earbuds in and sweater folded over her shorts and T-shirt, she waited patiently for a green light. The techno song on her MP3 melted into soft rock but before the song could build, a rush of footsteps milled behind her and she shook out her earbuds, looking over her shoulder –

A child, no older than seven, grabbed her legs and forced her onto the pavement. He had small shoulders, light hazel hair, and blue eyes that matched hers. His clothes were dirty and he was in need of soap and laundry detergent. A book with weird symbols secured to his back.

She was too surprised for words. The boy had more. "I found you, finally! I just know it!" He still held onto her and scrabbled to get his book, making faces.

"Kid, I don't know –"

"Wait!" he murmured angrily. The book skated off his shoulders and onto the concrete. She got a better look at it. It was the exact color of beach sand and had a cracked spine. "Read it! I know you can!"

Deep pressure flowed through her like a sip of champagne. She took it from his hands and flipped through it, finding symbols mixed with bizarre words. Nothing she knew.

"Seriously, I can't read any of this," Eve swore. The child deflated, shoulders drooping. She went through the first pages and found something that made sense. Words shining in large gold print. "I think I can read this little part."

The boy grinned. Eve strained to read it.

"_Upra_."

He turned his head and a blast of slippery red paint gushed out of the child's mouth, all across the street. At that moment, she wanted to run away before something happened to her.

"My name is Sundance," the boy introduced and gave her a better look of his eyes – dark blue like cornflowers and rimmed in black. "I know this sounds crazy but I'm a mamodo and I'm one of a hundred in a battle to become king of my world. I need your help to read my book and protect it at all costs. I trust you with my life. For the duration of the battle, you'll be like my parent, my mom." Sundance looked at her hopefully. "Can you do that?"

A kid she never met before trusted her with his life. Someone so innocent and pure had made her something important. Even though it'd only be for a short time, she couldn't just shrug off his words.

"I… okay."

He smiled and it became brighter than an explosion of diamonds.

* * *

**_I hope y'all like this story. I deleted my last Zatch Bell! fanfic because I didn't really know what to write and I have a few plans for this already. Besides, I know how a lot of you are probably tired of seeing Vivi and Demi. _**

**_I feel proud to upload this and I hope it's well-received! *crosses fingers*_**

**_Here's a submission form, by the way. Maybe if you like the story, you could submit a character._**

**_Book-Keeper Name:_**

**_Age:_**

**_Looks:_**

**_Typical Attire:_**

**_Personality:_**

**_History (about three sentences is fine.):_**

**_Other:_**

**_Mamodo Name:_**

**_Element:_**

**_Age:_**

**_Looks:_**

**_Typical Attire:_**

**_Personality:_**

**_History:_**

**_Spells:_**


	2. Thanks For The Memories

Sundance slept in her bed for the night, entrapped in the blankets and snoring. Eve had barely been able to convince Sindri that he was their lost cousin that was desperate for a home. He believed her. Or probably didn't feel like arguing at the latest hour of day.

She flew through the pages of Sundance's spell book. Everything mixed alphabet and ancient calligraphy. All she understood was that first spell. But nothing added up. How could a kid shoot paint from his mouth? She'd never met anyone who could do that. Never thinking someone like that actually existed.

He said he was one of a hundred. She would have to team up with a child to defeat over ninety other mamodo like him.

Eve drooped in her seat and used the book as a pillow. From the table, she glanced through the window at the skyline that improved from rainy gray to medicinal blue to a comforting in-between color. It reminded her of the clean linen that her mother would fold on a Sunday morning, fingers as fragile and pale as the fabric in her grasp.

She clenched her fingers in her palms and waited until the sun came up to let sleep grab her.

* * *

"You owe me your life," Eve whispered to Sundance as she led them into the playground, bedecked in running shorts, a tank top used for sleeping, and her shower-soaked hair fixed into a baseball cap.

Sundance backed up to stop, holding his chest with both hands as if she had the strength to rip his heart out. "My _life_?"

She laughed and stroked the brim of her hat. "Figurative speech, kid,"

"That wasn't funny." He pouted.

"Just go play before we leave."

Sundance saluted her like a cruise ship captain before he went off to hit the swings and the curviest slides. She watched him for an interval of five minutes before turning to face the book, his book. Strange things were carved into the front cover, each page was thick and preserved.

She'd never been interested in school or books but something she couldn't read was tempting. Maybe it was a type of tribal language. Ninety-nine other books existed. Could she read theirs?

"Eve, look out!"

Sundance reached her side with the velocity of a dragonfly and pulled her off the bench, onto the dingy asphalt, she gave him a look that spat poison.

"What the hell, kid?" she yelled.

He only pointed. Where she had been sitting, a pool of green acid thawed into the wood and altered its color. She sat there, dumbfounded. Sundance wiped his dirty hands on his shorts and kneeled into a battle stance in front of her.

Before them, a dignified older man in polished leather shoes and a suit stood alongside a beige-furred anteater wearing sunglasses. In the hand of the man was a glowing silk white book, similar to Sundance's.

"So our first opponent of the morning is a weak one," the man said in a noble British accent. "I am sensing one more and nothing more." He turned a few pages in the book. "I say, this shall be fun. Won't it, Antsy?"

Antsy nodded and extended his tongue out leisurely.

"Antsy? Oh my God, that's so embarrassing." Eve snickered.

Both man and animal glared at her.

Sundance tugged on her ankle and inclined closer. "Eve, this would be a good time for a spell…"

The man beat her to it. "_Ooma_!"

A rush of acid blasted toward them and Eve reached the page of their only spell and shouted it, frantically. "_Upra_!"

Acid and paint collided, spotting the ground at their feet red and green. Sundance jumped away from the mixed color with a grossed-out scowl. She could've laughed at his expression.

"We can't waste time, Sundance! _Upra_!" Eve shouted, pointing toward the pair.

Sundance opened his mouth and out went another shot of paint, not having a shield in time, Antsy endured the hit but the red soaked into his fur and fizzled. He yelped in pain as Sundance looked on in triumph.

_It was like fire_, Eve realized in her thoughts. _At least the spell can do something useful_.

"You brat!" The man skimmed through more pages. "A stronger spell is needed! Defend yourself against this! _Oomla Lulo_!"

Antsy stood upright onto two legs as if he were human. His mouth parted and his tongue slid across his lips, lengthening, a vigorous pink road stretching closer to them. Sundance dodged it but not Eve. Antsy's tongue wrapped around her wrist and locked there.

"Ew, ew, ew, _ew_! Get it off me!" Eve shrieked and shook her captured wrist. Something on it sputtered and burned like a torch. She was more disgusted by an animal's tongue on her skin. "Sundance, _Sundance_!"

But when she looked around, he was gone. She was only left with the suited man and the anteater closing in on her, round black eyes on the book.

She fell onto her knees and grabbed a fist of sand, targeting it at the demonic animal but her hand wouldn't release it and grit seeped into her nails. How could Sundance just leave her?

The anteater's book owner swore and she heard a discrete call of her name.

Sundance waved Antsy's book from his post on a street pole. His hair was dusty and he had a bleeding scratch on his chin. A grin showed all his shining white teeth, a crack in a top tooth. "Eve, a spell! Hurry!"

Antsy released her wrist and went for Sundance, screaming the name of his partner in one undistinguishable bark.

Eve rootled to reopen her book. "_Upra_!"

Sundance held up the book and paint fired at it. The book exploded into purple flames and Sundance dropped it before it could scorch his fingers. They all watched it crumble into ashes and Antsy glittered white and vanished once the book was gone. His partner had already fled.

So with each book burned, a mamodo disappears. If Sundance's book was burned, he would also disappear. She couldn't let that happen.

"That was good," Sundance said when he came next to her. She hadn't noticed the sore on her wrist until now. "The screaming thing was a good distraction.

_Well_, _it wasn_'_t meant to be a distraction_. "Thanks."

"Hey, that was pretty good."

They both jumped. Sundance dabbed the blood on his skin with a gulp.

A man with black hair and brown eyes relaxed against the same street pole Sundance had balanced on. He was well-built and lean with a light smile. Wearing jeans, a T-shirt that said _Teamwork__ is a lot of people doing what I say_, and an unbuttoned button-down with the sleeves folded to his elbows.

"Um…thanks." Eve said and held the book protectively under one arm. Had he saw the whole thing?

"I was about to intervene but you guys finished them off pretty fast," he continued, approaching them. Sundance glared at him doubtfully. "My name is Phil Howard and I'm also a book-owner." He held forward a spell-book. "And I also have a mamodo. Resh?"

A little girl peeked out from behind Phil's leg. She had silver hair and same-color eyes, donning a black knee-length skirt, a white shirt, and white shoes.

Resh blushed and nodded. "Nice to meet you…"

"We won't hurt you and aren't here to fight, seriously." Phil assured with an offhand wave. "Actually, we're hoping for the latter. It'd be better to team up and not fight. Call it an alliance. You guys seem trustful. What do you say?"

Sundance beamed. "Okay!"

Eve rolled her eyes and agreed. It's not like she ever had a choice with Sundance's nature.

* * *

And from another side of town, Caleb Borriello lifted weights to the sound of heavy rock. Having just returned home from his weekend-long trip to Italy, he tossed his luggage on the couch, changed into comfortable clothes, and found his dumbbells under the kitchen table.

His apartment was wrecked. Clothes of all kind thrown everywhere, food emptied from the fridge, water rings from deserted cups tarnished every wood surface. There wasn't much he could do. He could probably hire a cleaning lady when he felt like it.

The breakup of him and Eve was harsh but needed. Would they have lasted with all the argument? She threw plate at his head. That was a big sign of a breakup.

He flexed his arm with the weight, veins webbed from under his skin.

Whatever, there wasn't much he could do.

A fist pumped rapidly on the door, cutting through the music. He placed down his dumbbells and lowered the volume of his CD until it was barely heard. He was barely home for two hours and already someone was at the door. Maybe he should've stayed in Italy for an extra day like his father had suggested.

He slugged a hand through his dark hair and fixated his turquoise eyes on the door. He wasn't expecting someone either.

But he went for the door and unlocked it, pulling it open. A young girl with braided pink hair and round green eyes scuffled in her shoes. She sported a white romper with a fake leather belt and ballet shoes, looking like she just snuck out of middle school.

He was rational. "Who the fuck are you?"

The smile on her face dissolved and sulked into a pout. He noticed a pale blue book in her arms, something like a library book. She didn't look like the stealing type.

Then she threw him the book and he caught it before it fell. "Read it." she commanded with the sharpness of an ice pick.

"The whole thing?"

"Skim. Through. It." The kid had spunk.

He skimmed through it, very quickly. Eve had been more of a reader and a focuser in school. He was never.

A blue aura sparkled from the first pages and he turned to them, seeing gibberish and one sentence that he could actually understand. It didn't look like anything he'd ever seen before.

"'The spell that starts it all, _Ralodo_,"

The girl raised her hands and a little blizzard of snow fell around them, onto the carpet, onto the stairs. The sky became white and as plain as an easel. Caleb stared at her and the girl stared back.

All his memories trundled before him in a pinwheel of life. Bullied by the older kids in elementary school, punching an old friend for being stupid, losing his first tooth. Accepting dares and the money from them, the needle crossing his skin before each tattoo, the wrath of Eve's father and brother when they found out she dropped out for him. The gamble of his relationships, his parents telling him how proud they were of him, ripping his college applications apart, the hearty meal his mother made when he got his first A-plus.

Everything that was most memorable to him was gone.

It was like he was being reborn, granting him a good feeling.

He wanted to fight. He wanted to destroy.

The girl smirked. "I am Ophelia. Welcome to the battle, Caleb."

* * *

**_Aaaaand that ends chapter two. I really hope everyone likes this and I apologize for the wait. I've had endless homework and some trouble with this chapter. Everyone who has sent me OCS, thank you! It'd mean a lot if you can send more. To who has sent me OCs, I'll get to working them in slowly but I promise they'll all be in._**

**_On another opinion, how did you like Caleb's view? It'll probably be the only time it happens though. I really don't like writing him._**

**_R&R, please!_**


	3. Be Safe

Sundance was awed by the Burger King menu. An employee mopping around the soda machine gave them looks and a mid-aged woman with her three children laughed.

"Oh my God, look! Fries, teriyaki burgers, onion rings, chicken fingers!" Sundance cried, pointing at the large menu for emphasis and the pictures of falsely-advertised treats on the board.

Eve rolled her eyes and pronounced her order of a cheeseburger, fries, and bottled water. She turned to Sundance and tapped his shoulder, breaking him free of his fascination of fast food trance. "Sun, hey. You want anything?"

He nodded quite seriously. "Everything!"

"Well, I don't have enough for everything. How about a burger and fries like a normal person?" She grabbed his head and tilted it at the image of a hamburger with the sides of fries and soda.

Sundance was okay with his choice and she gave them to the cashier, paying without issue. They waited for their food and Eve gave the receipt over to verify the order, receiving their lunch in folded white bags. Sundance looked at her in betrayal when she didn't give him his food right away.

"We'll eat on the way. Meeting Phil and Resh, remember?"

They stepped outside and Sundance covered his eyes against the glower of sunlight. She handed Sundance his burger when he began complaining over the long walk. He tore apart the wrapper and held his burger up as if it were a gift from God, expression going from glee to disappointment.

Eve lifted an eyebrow. "What? Did she get your order wrong?"

"No!" He crossed his arms and huffed. "It looks _nothing _like the picture!"

* * *

From Phil's camera, Eve saw herself, terrified from Antsy's tongue on her wrist. She looked worse on-camera. Her clothe s were covered in sand and her baseball cap was tilted, freeing her hair all around her face. She screamed for Sundance and the camera focused on him, sneaking up behind Antsy's book-owner and jumping to grab his book. The man cursed at him and tried to run after him but Sundance was faster and younger, climbing high on the post.

He held the book above him and waved it, screaming for Eve and a spell. Phil hadn't filmed her scrambling with the book but he did get Sundance's eyes fading out as he engulfed the book in paint and fire.

The scene ended with Antsy consumed in light before his book burned, the patch of his book rooted into the ground before sand blew over it.

Sundance took Phil's camera and rewinded the shot of him enflaming Antsy's book. He watched himself proudly. "Wow, I'm _so _cool!"

Eve rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Sun," She turned to Phil. "Seriously though, where did you hide? I didn't see one person while we battled that anteater."

Phil did a couple of weird hand-motions. "I got mad ninja skills." They both laughed for a moment. "I was just across the street. My camera has a good focus and getting a tough battle like that on-tape was pretty cool."

Sundance nodded and gave Phil his camera back. "Yeah, it was tough."

"He means that in the figurative sense."

"Everything always is!"

"It's not my fault you don't have common-sense!"

"It's not _my_ fault you use too many big words!"

Resh laughed at Sundance's attitude as he ran off to occupy the monkey bars. She smiled and followed after him as a protective sister would, skirt billowing like strewn autumn leaves. Eve took the seat next to Phil and watched them play around, laughing, balancing themselves like acrobats on the metal bars.

"How long have you had Sundance?"

Eve turned to Phil and saw him with a trustful smile, something that said _friend_. He was recording Sundance and Resh's lithe movements, glancing at her through the corner of his eye.

"A little over a week, we only have one spell." _One spell that does pretty much nothing_. "How about Resh? She's a real sweetheart."

The corners of his smile stretched. "Over three months. You're gonna gain spells soon. The thing with paint is pretty sick. You could graffiti walls with that type of stuff."

"Or paint a tribute to Jackson Pollock."

He laughed. "Exactly."

"EVE!"

"God, I can never rest…" Eve said to herself as Sundance pounced onto her with his full weight. She sputtered at the blow to her stomach. "That would've been cute if you were smaller. What do you want?"

He directed her head to the far side of the park. A boy around her age stood with a much-taller girl. From where they were sitting, she could only see the woman and the whiteness of her hair. Maybe she was a mirage from all the sun. She appeared to have horns peering out of her hair and a sword fastened to the belt of her white dress.

Then the boy said something from behind her. A glow came from the book in his hand. She slid the sword out of the sheath, and broke into a run with her weapon.

"Move!" Phil and Resh ducked out of the way. Eve scrambled to grab Sundance and the book before they were pulverized. They all managed in time as sand and dust clouded around their feet.

Her chest rumbled against Sundance and her arms shook from the scare. "Why can't I ever have a normal day with you?"

Phil opened his book. "_Mirar_!"

Resh brought a mirror before them and it fired a shining beam of light. It jostled the woman but didn't stop her reign as she turned in the direction of them. Eve saw that she had gray eyes and was well-endowed like a dancer.

Eve threw back a couple of pages as Sundance kneeled into a battle stance. "_Upra_!"

He spit a stream of red paint and it caught across the girl's dress, burning the fabric but not doing any fierce damage.

Phil held a hand over his eyes to block the heat from his face. "Damn, this girl's a fighter!" He went through another few pages. "_Mirudo_!"

Resh raised her hands and a large mirror appeared. She directed it toward the mamodo and the woman hit it with her sword, an eruption of glass went everywhere, catching her skin with fallen shards.

Sundance's book in her hand glowed fiercer. The brightness grabbed her eyes and burned them. Eve turned a page to see the inscription of another spell as the woman's sword raged with orange fire.

"_Lebashi_!" Eve shouted, closing her eyes in desperation.

An elliptical shield of dripping purple paint emerged. Sundance held his ground as she poured more emotion into the shield.

The sword and shield cancelled out each other. All three mamodo were panting.

The woman's partner appeared through the smoke and dust. He was in close age to them with the frame of an athlete, black hair pulled into a mid-back ponytail, and light green eyes. He wore tan shorts, an open black T-shirt, black shoes and a black fedora. He looked like a typical school guy to them.

He raised an eyebrow at the pools of purple paint and glass shards among them. Phil tried to wipe the paint that blew toward him off. Sundance lay tiredly on the wrecked ground.

The guy closed his book with a tiny smile. "Anyone want to call it a draw?"

Phil, Resh, Eve, and Sundance all raised their hands in agreement.

* * *

As the night came to a close and clouds colored the sky blue and black, Sundance sunk into Eve's bed for sleep once they were back home. She had took a nice warm shower to wash all the sand and paint off her. Sindri gave her a simple wave and finished his homework before turning into the television room for some local news. That was what he did every night. When they were kids, she had to sit through hours of _Breaking News_ updates and other junkets until he surrendered the remote.

She dug a hand through Sundance's paint-encrusted hair. It was smooth and soft like a newborn's. He'd have to wash it out another day.

Her fingers grazed over two small bumps in his hairline. Parting his hair, she saw actual horns like ones that belong to an animal. They were obviously unnoticeable but were there. Guess there was something to separate him from normal children. But he or Resh or Amera - the demon woman they met today - weren't even remotely similiar to regular children. It wasn't a problem to her but it still made her wonder...

"Eve."

Eve looked up. Sindri stood at the door, pajama-clad and bare of his nose rings. His eyes were earnestly serious and narrow from where she sat. He gestured her with his hand, careful with his voice. Despite the level of it, she was still able to catch a tremor. "I think you might wanna see this."

She crawled over Sundance and out of bed, tiptoeing after him and into the television room. All lights were off, the only light came from the TV and it blared blue across the carpet. A woman reporter with bad hair and freckles read a report from her in-studio desk. Something about oil pollution.

"This is torture, Sin. What do you want me to see?"

"Wait for it."

The reporter finished the report and the camera snapped away from her and onto the face of a missing man.

Her heart raced frantically and she bit at her nails, shaking her head.

**MISSING**  
- Caleb Borriello  
**Age**: _19  
_**Eyes**: _Blue  
_**Hair**: _Black  
_**Height**: _5_'_11_''  
**Weight**: _163 lbs_.

_Caleb Borriello_, _a nineteen_-_year old East Tokyo High_-_graduate_, _was last seen yesterday entering his apartment after returning from a family vacation trip_.

_Borriello was last seen wearing a black T_-_shirt_, _jogging shorts_, _blue Vans_, _and aviators_. _He has blue eyes and a large amount of tattoos all across his arms_.

The camera turned to his mother, hounded by reporters and microphones, begging for her son to be returned home safe. She'd only met her about once or twice but it was known that she wasn't a crying woman. Police and canines were on the lookout. A phone number was left at the bottom of the screen for possible leads. Sindri gave a rude comment about Caleb but she didn't listen.

Nothing felt worse than losing someone.

* * *

**_So ends the third chapter. I finished this a bit in a rush and since I have school and will be exhausted from it for the rest of the week, I wanted to upload this fast and watch a few video cassettes of my old favorite movies. YES. Video cassettes. I still have a few. 90's kids will understand._**

**_R&R!_**


	4. Wanted Dead or Alive

Eve switched on the coffee machine once she found the energy to. She roused partly from a terrible dream and mainly from Sundance throwing himself onto her, begging for blueberry pancakes. Sleep in her gaze, she threw him off and he was currently nursing a swollen bump on his head in the bathroom.

News of Caleb's disappearance spread across town like disease. His apartment was blocked off with crime scene tape. Police canines sniffed the perimeter of his neighborhood and reporters cornered people on the street with questions. They called Caleb a partier but respectful to his neighbors, an introvert in public.

A mudslide of questions bore through. Was it planned? Accidental? Foul play? Nothing was out of place. Caleb's wallet and keys were still in the apartment, his cell phone neglected on the table. He wouldn't just up and leave without them and he was a combative fighter. Even though he only knew a couple of stances and how to throw a dart.

This just didn't seem right.

* * *

For the day, Eve and Sundance stayed in, much to the mamodo's dismay. She'd rather not have to deal with another battle because every time she went out, a mamodo would corner them into fighting. It'd be nice to not have to scrub paint out of her hair for one day.

Phil and Resh came over for a visit and Eve made them hot cocoa, ignoring the complaints of Sundance and how the chocolate burned his tongue. Resh laughed but was grateful. Phil cracked a joke that made them all laugh and cooled the mood of the afternoon. Phil and Resh stayed over until the sky was caramel gold and dotted with gray clouds before they bid their friends a temporary goodbye.

Amera and Kyo denied their offer to hangout but with good reason. They were on a manhunt for mamodo that terrorized the battle and others. Through the maple bark and curved green leaves of the forest, a dash of pink braids flew past Amera's eyes. She spun around and looked over Kyo. "A spell, please."

"_Sorusen_!"

Amera grabbed the sword off her belt and it shined brighter than Northern lights. She looked where to strike first but couldn't find the enemy. They were too fast.

"That's a nice weapon you got there. Better put it away before you hurt someone."

Amera meandered into a battle stance and glanced at Kyo, who looked even more confused than she as their eyes led them around the woodland of darkness and lofty old trees. "Who could've said that? I can't see anyone."

"Up here, kids."

Their heads shot up. They saw a guy around Kyo's age with dark hair and dead blue eyes, his arms a mural for tattoos. He held a pale blue spell-book and his smile was rotten like a poison-infested viper. He wore green camouflage pants, black sandals, and a black T-shirt with the sleeves ripped to the shoulders.

Something looked weird about him. He didn't look like he deliberately wanted to fight. As if he wasn't in his conscious mind. No one would contribute to battle unless they were murderous or soulless.

"I won't fight you but you both look interesting." The guy smiled as he spoke but it didn't melt the hollowness in his eyes. Amera stared at the book-holder as if he was only a skeleton of someone else. "I have better rabbits to prey on. Maybe next time, we will be able to fight properly."

Kyo's jaw tightened. "Why don't you fight us now, coward?"

"I don't pick on the weak." He laughed and smiled wider at the mamodo and book-keeper below him. "Isn't it wrong to ask someone to race when their legs are broken?"

"That will be you shortly," Amera muttered.

He was gone in a blizzard of instantaneous white snowflakes before Kyo could get a spell in. He closed his book and Amera's sword lost its light. They were left in the dark.

"Isn't that the missing guy?"

Kyo nodded. "I believe so."

But they couldn't do a thing when they barely had a trace.

* * *

_**Sorry for the wait and the length of this chapter. I definitely have ideas for the next chapter and it'll be much longer than this one. Hope you enjoy. **_

_**Wowza48 - 1000 years later from Zatch's battle in the manga/show. There won't be any flying cars or food converted into pills though. C:**_


	5. Don't Trust Me

"I just don't think Caleb would have a mamodo," Eve said, sitting on the kitchen floor while Sundance mixed a concoction of tomato juice and hot sauce in a cup. "And you guys found him in the forest? Don't get me wrong, I believe you but I'm still trying to digest the idea of Caleb in wilderness. He goes batshit if his carrots and peas are mixed together."

Kyo nodded and smiled. "It was him. He looked exactly like the missing picture,"

Eve shook her head and brought her hands across her forehead. "He's so stupid. So many people are volunteering to look for him and he's being selfish by hiding out. What could control him to do this?"

"A mamodo," Amera answered. "Despite their being a hundred of us, not all of us are pleasant or welcoming. Caleb's mamodo seems to be a good example of that. She must have a demonic control over Caleb to make him avoid his family and friends like this. The only thing on his mind is bloodlust and violence. He won't stop until the win is achieved and will hurt anyone in his path to gain it."

Eve shook her head again. She looked delusional. "But…Caleb would never hurt anyone."

Sundance turned his eyes to the floor sadly.

Kyo held his fists shut in his lap. "How can you be so sure?"

He was right. She couldn't. She had no idea. Ever since they parted ways, she hardly knew him anymore. If she were to run into him on the street, he could pull a weapon on her whether she'd be protected or not. Would he want to fight her if she were seen out with Sundance? Burn his book and possibly do something to harm her?

Kyo smiled ruefully. "He said he had better prey to hunt…whatever that meant."

"Do you know anything about that, Eve?" Sundance asked with an uncharacteristic change to his voice. Black-circled eyes widened and worried. She looked away because they made her feel bad.

"Not a thing…"

She felt the heat of questioning eyes on her and kept her gaze down. She locked eyes with Sundance for a long time and his eyes were cloudy with concern. He turned to Kyo and Amera, and then burst into animated conversation, beaming, and jabbering about the green-tea ice cream Sindri brought home for him.

Eve sighed in relief. Seemingly, he was smarter than she thought.

* * *

Eve jogged through the park to distract her tense mind. Techno-blended pop music blasted from her MP3 and filled her head with something other than unease. She ran in place and sang an appallingly off-key verse of the current song on her music player.

Even though she's been admiring every minute she's had without Sundance or his book, she couldn't not feel lonely. No Sundance pouncing onto her back or having to repay the corner-store vendor when Sundance was caught stealing a chocolate bar, _or _having to remind Sundance that if he shot another rubber-band gun at one of Sindri's neighbors, he'd be sleeping in a futon on the floor.

She laughed at the reminder and dwelled by the public water fountain to quench her thirst. Holding her loose earphone wires out of way, she moved forward and drank from the spout. After a while, she got bored and sank into her daydreams, gazing at the water as it arcs down the drain.

When she turned, she expected to see no one behind her. Unless it was only another jogger in line for the fountain, she could never get on people's good sides. She wasn't exactly the world's miracle.

Someone so familiar, so memorized, encountered her eyes. Their eyes were cold and flinty; their physique was skinner and pronounced with an injurious diet. Their face was gaunt but not because they were sick. They only appeared cold and horrific like an assassin.

Eve held her heart, panting, breathless.

"Dear Eve, I always told you how bad it is to jog alone. Who knows what can happen?"

She threw herself back against the fountain. "Caleb, no…everyone is looking for you. You have to g-get back home. Local canines are sniffing for blood on your block, your mother is crying on TV! Please, Cal–"

"Why should I listen to you?" He most definitely wasn't. "You're nothing to me, you're a _bitch_. You never listened to me so why should I repay the favor? Payback is a gorgeous thing. I'm thinkin' I should repay you with it." He moved fast and roughly took her waist, forcing her near him. It didn't hurt but she still shook. "I'll let you off with a sweet, sweet warning. Where's that book of yours, Eve?"

It felt like he punched her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

From behind Caleb, she saw a little girl in the shadows. A girl with pink braided hair and equally unclean clothes, a jacket looked to be Caleb's on her shoulders. Her white grin was ice in the darkness.

She groaned in pain when Caleb held her chin in his hand, meeting her eyes bravely. "You've never been a good liar. Can't ya try to hide the heartbreak in your eyes? I ain't always the bad guy."

"Yes, you are," she mumbled.

He let her go, clearly hearing what she said. Caleb pulled back against the grass, the girl threw him a light blue square and he caught it with one hand, popping it open. He turned a bunch of pages and skimmed what was printed before reading it.

Caleb smirked. "I warned you."

The pink-haired child held her hands up from behind Caleb. She said nothing.

Caleb laughed. Eve noticed for a split second, he sounded nothing like himself. The Caleb she knew would never sleep in caves or attack an unarmed girl.

"Last chance, Eve…"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she shouted helplessly, tears formed in her eyes. She could hardly lie.

He frowned.

The child giggled.

"Caleb, _please_!" It took this long to realize how right Kyo and Amera were about him. How did he know she had a spell book? Did he see Sundance in the park? How did he have a spell book? Was that the demonic child?

She trusted him.

"_Primando_!"

* * *

Sundance jolted off the couch, gasping at a mamodo world nightmare. _Just a dream_…

"Eve?" he called out. She could make him hot chocolate that Sindri sucked at. Sindri made the premade ones without the marshmallows and poured it into a lame plastic cup. Eve let him use the special, huge coffee mugs that she stole from the guy she was living with. "_Eve_?"

He saw his spell book on the table and he jumped to get it. She wasn't supposed to leave the house without him or the book. How could she be so stupid?

Sundance ran out of the house, shoeless, screaming the name of his partner and hoping that she will suffice fine without him.

* * *

**_I blame Hurricane Sandy and my failed laptop battery for the wait. Any on the East Coast agree?_**


	6. Just Give Me a Reason

Eve collapsed to the ground. Her elbows and knees scratched across the zigzagged paving stones as she fell forward, the weight of her body a ball and chain, tugging her down. The book in Caleb's hand sparkled blue like a lagoon. The mamodo's hands sputtered with concentrated energy and a brilliant, astounding shade of silver.

She was gasping and holding her chest to supply her lungs with air. Caleb did not react to her suffering or close the spell book. "I did warn you, didn't I?" He wasn't awaiting an answer so he begun to walk over to her. He paced around her shaking body before forcing her head up to look straight into Ophelia's eyes. At first, Eve saw nothing but the foul stare of a troublesome child until Caleb spoke up. "Let's play a game, shall we, Ophelia?"

Ophelia grinned. "I've always loved games!"

Eve fought to point her gaze elsewhere but Caleb's fingers moved under her eyes, widening them, overpowering her. "Cal–"

She became silent. Darkness swamped across her eyesight and then a globe of light hurtled out from under it. The scene painted itself from scratch. She knew it before she could even see the cracking paint of the walls.

"_I_'_ve been calling you since yesterday_," _Eve said_, _eating from a carton of noodles_. _She wasn_'_t mad but concerned_, _donning sweatpants and a huge sweatshirt_, _her hair scraped back from her face into a ponytail_. _Caleb came in their apartment in the same clothes he left with yesterday and a fizzy energy drink_. "_Where were you_?"

_Caleb drank straight_-_up from the can_. "_Hanging out with the guys_, _didn_'_t I tell you yesterday_?"

"_So you hung out with guys I barely even know from yesterday to today_'_s evening_. _Without giving me a moment_'_s_ _notice to when you'd be home_?" _she asked_, _crossing her arms_.

_He rested his drink on the table_. "_I_'_m back_, _aren_'_t_ _I_? _Calm down_."

"_I_'_m not going to calm down_!" _Her voice was becoming less serene_. "_What if something happened_? _Would a cop have come to my door_, _saying that you were dead_? _You_'_re so irresponsible and you don_'_t even realize it_."

"_I_'_d rather not stay home the rest of my life like you do_–"

"_I_'_ve done everything for you and you can_'_t even tell me the truth_," _Eve told herself_, _walking out into the kitchen and shaking her head_.

_Caleb rolled his eyes_. "_What could I be lying about_?"

_She looked away_. "_You weren't out with your friends last night_. _I know where you were_…_and it wasn_'_t with a guy_."

"_Are you serious_? _Do you think I was _cheating_ on you_?" _he questioned_. "_Fine_, _I slept over a girl_'_s house_! _I drank too much and fell asleep on the couch if you really need to know_."

_Eve sent him an empty glance_. "_You_ _could_'_ve called me_…"

"_We live together_, _I_'_m nineteen_, _and I_'_ve graduated from high school_. _I doubt I need to_."

"_After everything I_'_ve done for you_! _You can't even spare me one phone_-_call_? _When my mother died and I was kicked out of my house_, _I ran to you_. _I dropped out of high school because my boyfriend was worried that he was_ '_going off the deep end_.' _I haven_'_t talked to my family in months because of you_! _All I have is you and I can't remember the last time that you_'_ve done something for me_. _You have no idea how much I sacrificed to be with you_!" _She was out of breath by time she was done_.

"_I never asked you to do any of those things for me_." _Caleb spoke up_. "_If you_'_re so unhappy_, _you can leave_. _I_'_m not stopping you_. _I never wanted a relationship_. _You want me to be someone that I can_'_t_. _Come back and tell me when you find someone else that can deal with you_ _because I give up_."

_Eve tried to approach him_. "_Caleb_–"

"_You can_'_t depend on me anymore_. _I_'_ll teach you a life lesson here_. _Don_'_t ever depend on anyone because in the end_, _they_'_ll only betray you_. _Believe that_, _alright_?"

_She never forgot it._

In reality, Eve strived for words and movement. Her sluggish gaze was heavy and grave. "I…trusted you."

Caleb turned back to Ophelia. "Shall we finish her off?"

"Wouldn't you like to play more mind games with her?" Ophelia asked, raising her hands back at Eve to ready herself for a spell. Eve became shaken as the flashback reiterated itself in her head.

He flipped a couple pages. "I like to make revenge quick and sweet. Making people suffer slowly is quite beneath me."

Ophelia pouted but agreed. "Fine…"

"_Ra_–"

"Get away from her!"

Sundance ran toward them, barefooted, gasping after he was in good distance of the group after concluding the stretch of his run. His face was flushed and his hands were sealed into fists, the horns that made him look like no other child were projecting out of his hair. Held between his arms was a golden spell book that he could barely hold.

Caleb was amused and closed the book. "I see Eve wasn't telling the truth after all."

Sundance ran to Eve's side and laid his book under her arm. Ophelia swooped in front of Caleb to act as his defense. The sun was setting and it heaved white-golden light across the street and the well-furnished grass.

"You're finished!" he shouted, darting toward Ophelia, fist aimed for her.

Both Ophelia and Caleb smiled. Neither of them moved.

"_Relirium_."

Nothing happened until Sundance's knuckles fixed on Ophelia's stomach, something triggered like a time bomb before she curtly detonated into a dangerous, spiked flower of ice. Sundance flew back against the ground, screeching in grief, icicles rooted in his fingers and burning them as if he washed them in acid. Tears glazed through his eyes in shame as he went to pluck an icicle out of his skin but didn't.

"Your bravery is remarkable," Ophelia said. "When you're stronger, child, then come face us. You seem like you'll be fun to battle in the future. Your partner may take a while to heal. She doesn't seem to endure mind games very well."

Sundance rocked his ice-ridden hand against his chest. "Go to hell."

"I'll be careful with my words if I were you," Caleb declared.

They vanished in a swirl of snowflakes. Sundance dropped to his knees and shook his head.

Sundance tripped over to Eve's side and knelt by her head, looking into her inexpressive eyes for life. She didn't appear to be awake but she was alive so that was all he could take without exhaling his relieved emotions.

Unbelievably, he pulled Eve and his book onto his back and her arms draped over his shoulders, hanging floppily like vines.

Sundance angled his head to a side and frowned confusingly.

Figuring out where she lived again would be harder than expected.

* * *

**_Has anyone ever listened to music that they regret having obsessed over now? When I was little, I was overly-obsessed with the Spice Girls and I'd buy these lollipops that came with stickers of them. I recently listened to 'Wannabe' and I couldn't stand through the whole song. _**

**_R&R!_**


	7. Scream and Shout

_Is this heaven_?

_The silence spilt through Eve like an upsurge of adrenaline_. _Along with a blanket of darkness tossed over her_. _It felt warm like the tickle of sand as it runs through your fingers_. _Isn_'_t death supposed to be dreaded and grotesque like in the horror movies_? _Already_, _she was imagining whether Sindri would be present at her funeral or whether he'd rather take a boring college class_.

_Eve overheard her name resound from the sky_. _It wasn_'_t clear and sounded like sin_. _She saw the contour of a grown woman_._ Her body was marred by burn scars and she wore a white kimono with sparkly glass beads wound through her hair_. _She outstretched her arms_, _saying_ _Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve_.

"_Who are you_?" _Eve called out_. "_How do you know me_?"

"_Words can_'_t explain my love for you_," _the woman said_. _The ghost woman strode toward Eve but she only threw herself backward_. "_Come close_, _little danger_. _It_'_s just me_…"

_Eve made movement to thwart the woman from getting to her_. "_Stay away from me_! _I don_'_t know who you are_!"

_The woman moved too fast for Eve to stop her_. _She dragged Eve into her arms and held her as if she were moments away from throwing a tantrum_._ Tears went to Eve_'_s eyes and she looked down_, _making sure her hair clouded her face before she was going to cry_. _She knew the voice but couldn_'_t stand to admit where it came from_. _Ophelia_'_s mind games definitely impacted on her head_.

"_M_-_Mom_…_it_'_s you_."

"_Yes_,_ little danger_. _You_'_re right_. _You can finally see the truth_." _Kana Miroashi said_. _She was a gorgeous woman_. _Sindri was the perfect male copy of her while all Eve obtained were her blue eyes and eating habits_. _Despite Sindri looking exactly like their mother_, _he was nothing like her and really all that was left of Kana were the memories_.

"_I miss you_, _Mom_. _I miss you so much_…" _Eve informed in tears_. "_Please come back_! _I_'_ll be a better daughter_, _I promise_! _I_…_I_'_ll clean my room every day and I_'_ll do the dishes and I_'_ll_ never_ get_ _another tattoo_! _I didn_'_t even want this one_! _I got it on a dare_–"

_Amara nodded and passed Eve a smile_. "_I_'_ve already made a deal with God_."

"_Can_'_t you just give him an IOU_?" _Eve asked_. "_He can have Sindri_. _No one likes him_."

_She giggled_. "_I love you_, _little danger_. _Stay good_."

"_Wait_–"

_There was no chance to say anything more to her mother_. _Eve was falling again but this time into the light_.

* * *

Sundance glanced into the stadium-sized East Tokyo High field from behind the bleachers. One of the last guys in a soccer uniform ran into the locker room and the door closed behind him. He made sure the coast was clear before running full-speed toward the team's bench and duffel bags. Eve constantly told him not to steal but she was still unconscious behind the bleachers. She'd never know.

He sieved through the bags, one by one. There were mainly extra clothes, crushed water bottles and food wrappers, and bars of deodorant. Sundance ended up finding someone's deli-made sandwich piled with salami, prosciutto, lettuce, tomato and onions. His mouth watered and he lunged for the first bite.

Comically but not so much to him, he yelped when biting his thumb. He turned to the food-stealer in disgust, scraping his teeth together in anger.

A rabbit with fuzzy white fur and light blue eyes sat on the stands, holding the sandwich Sundance came across in its paws. It definitely wasn't a normal-sized animal but with only stolen food on his mind, Sundance didn't care to notice.

"Hey, asshole rabbit, I saw it first!"

The rabbit shook its head. "Poyu, poyu, poyu…"

"Give it back!"

"Poyu, poyu…"

"_That_'_s mine_!" Sundance shouted and charged toward the rabbit with his arms raised to strike. The rabbit bounced out of Sundance's reach, still holding the sub sandwich. Starving and angry, Sundance tackled the rabbit onto the grass but it had no trouble overthrowing him, although releasing the sandwich, it stomped across Sundance's stomach but couldn't block a punch from him. Brilliantly, the rabbit caught Sundance's fist between his teeth and bit down _hard_.

"Ah! Evvvveeee, help me! Someone, anyone…help me! Someone _help me_! I'm being attacked!" Sundance wailed, sprinting full circles around the field. The glaring rabbit still didn't budge. "Evvvvveeeeee, someone–"

The rabbit's soft ears twitched and it let go of Sundance. At seeing Eve awake and hobbling closer with his book, he raced over to her and threw himself into her arms, gripping her shirt with both hands. Teeth marks bled an oozing red from his knuckles. "Eve, you're here!"

"It's not easy to tune out your voice, Sundance."

Sundance held onto her tighter and pointed out the rabbit. "Eve! That _thing _attacked me! I was minding my own business and I found a sandwich in someone's bag. It looked so good and I was so hungry–"

"Sundance! What have I told you about stealing?"

"Not to, I know. But the opportunity was right there so I took it! Until that monster mauled me! It could've had rabies! It could be a…mamodo."

The animal crossed his arms. Eve had to think about it. Even if he didn't have a book-keeper, his book was nowhere in sight unless he had a good hiding place for it. Sundance's own book swayed haphazardly in her hands. Wouldn't that mamodo have attacked her by now if she was holding an enemy's book so close by?

Sundance took a protective stand by Eve. But she was more thrown into not attacking. "How could this mamodo still be around if he doesn't have a partner?"

"Well, that's not exactly it."

Eve forgot what balance she had and fell onto the grass, her head not far from the point of Sundance's running shoe. A blonde teenager with euphoric green eyes stood behind them. He had a fine smile and was clad in a soccer uniform–a black shirt and shorts and cleats that were all identical in color.

Sundance pouted. "Smooth, Eve…"

The rabbit hopped over to the blonde and tilted his head. In the soccer player's hand was an aqua blue spell-book that looked as obvious as a threat. But it wasn't open and neither of them jumped to attack her.

She didn't mean to react so drastically. After what happened with Caleb and Ophelia, she couldn't help it. She was still on the mend of recovery and wouldn't be off for a while.

"I've never really had that kind of effect on someone," the blonde said with a laugh, offering his hand to her to help her off the ground. "I'm Seiku Kasumoda and this is Itosagi." Itosagi's whiskers bobbed slightly but he still didn't look much at Sundance.

Eve got off the ground herself and gestured to Sundance. "I'm Eve, he's Sundance."

Seiku gave his hand to Sundance instead. "Pleased to meet you, Sundance."

Sundance beamed and propelled forward, taking Seiku's one hand in both of his. "You too!"

Of course, Sundance would instantly trust in someone without even knowing them.

"Kasumoda, back on the field!"

Someone Eve assumed to be the soccer coach stamped a foot. Located on the field were a dozen of soccer players with eyes that sparkled from the sunlight and amusement. Before Seiku left, he turned to Eve with a smile.

"Don't be scared of us, okay? We won't hurt 'cha."

Once he was gone and Itosagi regained the sandwich he fought Sundance for, Eve sighed.

Sundance grinned. "You're blushing,"

"What? No, no, I'm not!"

"Yeah, you are!"

"You are so sleeping on the floor tonight."

* * *

"Eve?"

Sundance walked into Eve's room while she was sitting on her bed, fingers in her hair and head in her lap. Sindri had only left the apartment minutes earlier to visit people in Okinawa. Sundance approached her side and patted her ankle. "Eve, are you okay?"

She turned her hair away from her face and lifted her head, positioning her fingertips under her eyes in an unconventional way of preventing tears. A smudge of mascara streaked her cheek. The outlines of her eyes were bordered with red. She touched around her eyes and nodded.

"I'm just a little upset. Don't worry about it." she told him in her smallest voice. A hiccup bolted out of her mouth and she sniveled, not moving her fingers from beneath her eyes. How long had she been crying? Sindri was gone for at least an hour and once he left, Eve dragged herself into her room wordlessly. "Are you okay? Do you wan–"

He crawled onto her bed. "You can tell me what's wrong. I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"There's not–"

"I don't know anything about you," Sundance said, tilting his head innocently but his voice was the exact opposite. "I want to be king. To help people, to let my world know that they have a voice and there are people that want to listen. Things aren't right over there as of now. Our current king has tried to help but doesn't know how. Tell me about yourself or don't tell me. I don't have a family. As far as I've known, I've been raised by struggling painters. _You_'_re_ my family, Eve. I appreciate what you've done for me. If you'd only just tell me about yourself…"

While Sundance was talking, tears passed through and between her fingers. "I dropped out of high school for my boyfriend. His name is Caleb. He attacked me with his mamodo. You haven't felt betrayal until you've seen the emptiness in someone's eyes when they attack you. I've never been so humiliated!"

_Don_'_t ever depend on anyone because in the end_, _they_'_ll only betray you_.

"He never cared about me, I know that! I do!" Eve admitted in a sob. "I trusted him and he broke that. He was my best friend, it hurt to see him look me in the eye and laugh at my agony. Somehow, I know that isn't him and that's why I want to help him. I can't stand what this demon is doing to him! I will do anything in my power to annihilate that monster, absolutely anything."

"Eve?"

She coughed. "Yeah?"

"That was good."

* * *

Sindri left school alone, holding his keys in his mouth as he wrestled his binder into his bag. It wasn't a huge walk to his apartment but after a long school schedule, he'd much rather not have to travel through an unsafe section of the city. The clouds glued themselves together to resemble a smoke- circled building.

"Oi, Sindri. Remember me?"

Caleb clutched a shining book, similar to Sundance's yellow one. A child with pink hair stood behind him, body poised to project an attack sequence. He smiled and read across its pages.

"Hey, Caleb, remember me? You're lucky my sister likes you so damn much or I'd beat your ass right here."

"Not before I beat yours."

"What the hell are you–"

"_Reysa_."

* * *

**_Hope y'all enjoy this cliffhanger. Sorry for being a terrible procrastinator and thanks a million for the reviews! I really appreciate it._**


	8. Illegal

"Caleb attacked your brother? Okay, that goes below the belt." Phil said in disgust, shaking his head and rifling a hand through his black hair. "Who the hell does that? The dude is practically defenseless!"

Sindri really did need to take self-defense classes. This wasn't the first time that someone has cornered and confronted him. Prior to the start of his third year in high school, he was mugged for his cell phone and new sneakers. The robber broke his nose when Sindri moved to defend himself. Whatever spells Caleb and Ophelia directed at Sindri did enough damage to require eight stitches in the stomach and an additional day in the hospital for evaluation.

Eve shrugged and peeled an apple with a knife. "It's definitely Caleb. He has a hobby of attacking people while they're alone and defenseless."

Resh tilted her head at an angle. "How is your brother? Is he doing any better?"

Sundance jumped over Eve and grinned at Resh. "He's fine! He just gotta stay in the hospital a little longer. The guy bruises like a peach!"

She quickly pushed him out of her lap and Sundance fell on the floor with not even a noise. "Kyo and Amera told me they've had no success in finding Caleb. For some reason, Amera carries more of a grudge against Ophelia and Caleb than we do."

"To the contrary, Ophelia's never been the most liked mamodo." Resh advised, fidgeting with a fist of her silver hair. "Even in our world, she has always wreaked havoc and terrorized the other mamodo children. She specializes in the mind and playing with a person's least favored memory or phobia, whether mamodo or human. While they're down, she finishes them off without remorse and if the chance was given, she'd do much more than gamble with people's hearts."

"That explains the flashback, I guess," Eve said while continuing to shave the apple. "I thought I was going crazy."

"Ophelia can affect people in that way," Resh guaranteed with a nod. "While facing her, you should never look straight in the eye. Her win will be definite if so."

Sundance sat up, patting the bump on his head. At spotting the peeled-white apple in Eve's hand, he beamed and grabbed it from her, cradling the apple in his palms as if it were a precious souvenir. "Thanks, Eve!" He ate the skinned apple whole and took the red peels with him to Sindri's room.

Eve turned toward the door. "Don't jump on his bed!"

"I won't!"

"Resh, can I ask you a question?" Eve asked with a shift to her voice.

The mamodo girl nodded. "Of course."

"It's about Sundance," she said, making her voice little enough. "Do you know anything about his family or how his life was in the mamodo world? I'm just really…curious."

Phil smiled down at Resh. "She knows plenty about him."

Resh blushed but it fell away when she told her story. "This may be only a rumor but I've heard it repeated so often. Sundance was…was abandoned as an infant. In our world, depending on your lineage, parents will leave their children on a curb to fend for themselves if their element isn't what is preferred. Let's say, a child is born with the ability of fire to a large family of pyros. Two out of ten clans often ditch their child if they wield no unique ability. The same, I assume, has happened with Sundance."

"Bastards," Phil affirmed. "How could anyone, _anyone_ leave their child for dead?"

Eve shook her head, placing it in her wobbly hands. "I just don't get how anyone could ever..."

"Me neither. I'm lost here, really, what can you say?"

Eve got up from her seat, "I'm going to go check up on him. He's been too quiet since we started talking."

She jerked back her chair to reach the full, uninhabited doorway. Sundance was asleep on Sindri's bed, his hair messy like a rat's nest, a stain of drool stretching down from his mouth to chin. The red skeletons of fruit skin were caught in his fingers. Eve smiled and dug into the linen closet, unfolding a blanket that could engulf a child before she spread it out over Sundance, walking out of the room so he could nap without trouble.

* * *

"Check it out, Eve! They're smoking like Sindri does!" Sundance yowled, holding her wrist and pointing eagerly at a horde of teenagers smoking from glass pipes. With the inclusion of a concrete floor, slippery metal skateboard ramps, and dumpsters gagged with sake bottles and poker chips. The park was more known as a child-hazard than a safe zone.

"Sindri smokes cigarettes," Eve said, yawning into her hand. She was clad in sweatpants, a large shirt with a cartoon dragon on the front and slip-on Vans. Her brown-blonde hair was locked in a disorderly bun on top of her head, a chopstick keeping it in place. "That's…illegal candy."

Obviously, she looked terrible because she hadn't planned on leaving the apartment today but Sundance insisted on having tofu bars so an exception had to be made unless she wanted to deal with him one of his tantrums.

Sundance tilted his head. "What makes it illegal?"

"The law. But I'll give you an example. Imagine there's a life-sized donut, complete with frosting and rainbow sprinkles. Because it's so good, it can get you sick enough to go to heaven but people still do it anyway because they like the feeling."

"Like a sugar rush?"

"You can call it that."

"Let's see if they'll share!" Sundance said and removed his hand from her wrist. He sprinted through the mob and Eve ran after him. She made an apology every time someone swore at her when she tripped over their feet.

A teen, undoubtedly the same age as Eve, held herself proud and egotistical among her comrades. She had brown hair and brown eyes that were darker in the sunlight, and was wearing a pink beanie, a white shirt over a black tank top, jeans the color of dead plants and pink snow-boots. She had an impressive tattoo of a scorpion with gold pieces for eyes on her neck but it clearly wasn't done with a needle.

Sundance made his best puppy-eyes smile. "Can I have some of your donut sugar?"

The girl didn't bat an eyelash. "No."

"Sundance, don't run like that!" Eve chastised, hauling him into her arms and covering his mouth but the damage was done. She knew those people as Caleb's friends but nothing more. If they didn't recognize her, it'd be the best day of–

One of the boys gave her the stink-eye. "Aren't you Caleb's girl?"

Over a dozen excuses to why she and Caleb were no longer dating showered her until Scorpion Tattoo chose to interfere. "Didn't you hear, Lucian? Caleb's been missing. Broken up or not, running away from this shithole was the best thing he ever did."

"It's hard to talk about things you know nothing about," Eve retorted.

"I know that Caleb never wanted kids. It's amazing he stuck around with you this long even after he knocked you up." Scorpion Tattoo leered, her stare dawdled on Sundance. "It makes me wonder what he _saw _in you."

Eve glided a protective arm around Sundance. "A lot of things he obviously didn't see in you."

"Uh-oh, Aoki got that look on her face again," Lucian said with a flinch. "There's gonna be trouble. We better skedaddle."

The entire mob took off. Sundance collapsed onto the ground when he saw that they took the glass pipes, pocket-sized balances, and bags of white powder with them. Aoki (or rather Scorpion Tattoo) stepped back and touched the print on her neck.

"You're gonna pay, Miroashi," Aoki snarled like a cat, dragging a blood orange spell-book out from her backpack on the ground.

"Really? What makes you think so?" Eve asked bravely. The girl didn't even have a mamodo. It didn't make sense that she could have a spell-book. The only probability was that she stole it from someone else.

Eve scouted through her bag for Sundance's book but not before Aoki could get the first spell in.

"_Scoplor_!"

The scorpion tattoo evaporated as if someone threw water on it and an actual living scorpion, the size of a human, skittered across the concrete on its eight legs and arched its stumpy tail through the air.

Eve covered her mouth and gasped, so dumbfounded she couldn't think of an attack spell. _I guess this is karma_.

Instead, Sundance laughed and clapped at the scorpion and Aoki as if they were actors in a movie. "How do you do that!? That's so cool!"

* * *

**_So I'm thinking about making this battle a two-to-a-pending-three part thing. I kept on getting stuck on what to write for this last scene so I apologize for the delay. _**

**_Random author's side-note to anyone who cares (or doesn't care, just happened to skip upon this and read it), I was originally going to lead this story on Caleb's POV and have him be Sundance's book-owner when I first thought of this fic but I couldn't think of a good antagonist at the time. Caleb was still a total a-hole in the first draft though so nothing's really changed about him except his appearance. _**

**_Side-note done. R&R!_**


	9. Safe

The scorpion whacked his coiled tail across the devastated pavement and hissed, splashing Sundance's entranced face with a gooey black something. Aoki grinned behind her mamodo and turned a page in her orange book. The book could be rarer than three cherries in a slot machine but Eve saw it only as a weapon of mass destruction that could be either the disintegration of Sundance's book or plan out her murder.

She pulled a face at her dramatics. Having Sundance around all the time was getting to her head.

Sundance made a squawking noise that could frighten a bird. "I want a pet scorpion!"

She rolled her eyes, wrenching open Sundance's book to its first page. "_Upra_!"

A shadow of white clouded across Sundance's gaze and if he were weaker, the shot could've knocked him off his feet. Red paint spilled out of his mouth, sought after the lax scorpion and it found its target. Sundance smiled hesitantly but it collapsed when he saw his paint-attack was a failure. The red paint that should've burned the scorpion's shell, instead, melted like rain off plastic.

"What the hell? Why did that not work?" Eve shouted. She couldn't control the chills affecting her frame.

"Oh, please!" Aoki replied, throwing pages back. "Thompson's armor can't be broken by a shallow first spell! Try this, _Scosu_!"

Thompson turned around so that his tail was facing Sundance and he elevated it, the barbed point of it shined black.

"Sundance, look out! _Lebashi_!"

Sundance threw himself out of the way and brought forward a circular shield made of leaking purple paint. Thompson dug his tail in the concrete and laid it there, closing his eyes. Eve held the book against her chest and sighed.

"Not quite."

A geyser of ink blew out the concrete and rammed into Sundance, catching him in the chest and making him airborne. Thompson, despite his excessive weight and size, jumped after Sundance and smashed his tail into his abdomen, bringing him back onto the concrete and cracking the ground under him. He opened his mouth but did not scream.

He wobbled to his feet, standing in a person-sized crater in the ground. Eve could've burst into tears on the spot at the depressed bruise that would become a shiner and the ink burned through his shirt that bared cringe-worthy second-degree burns.

"Eve, a spell," Sundance croaked. "Hurry."

Her fingers shook as she turned back pages. "_Upra_."

Sundance fired out another spout of red paint and it struck Thompson but did no serious damage. A dent the size of a penny but it was nothing to boast about.

Aoki pointed at Sundance. Her eyes were rabid like a zombie's. "Aim for his feet, Thompson! _Scasa_."

"_Lebashi_!" Eve chanted but since she was so afraid, the shield appeared weaker than the last and Thompson blew an ink rocket that shattered through it. The attack threw Sundance back into Eve and they slid across the concrete. The scrapes materializing on her hands and elbows felt like rug burn.

Sundance took in a breath. "Damn, this is weird."

"What is?" Eve asked.

"I'm burned badly but I feel nothing," Sundance said with a direct gesture at his injured stomach. The skin was burned to a light pink and staunched with glistening red blisters that stemmed with freckles of blood. It didn't look real. For once, she'd be happy if she woke up and found this a dream. "This isn't normal but I have…an idea."

"Just hand us your book and I'll put your suffering to an end," Aoki said but she wasn't jumping to cast another spell. The scorpion didn't move from where it last struck. "Makes it easier for both of you, yeah?"

Sundance whispered in Eve's ear, his voice broken and dark. When he was through, he took a protective stance in front of Eve and cradled his stomach in one hand, unsure of what he was waiting for.

"You get this book over my dead body!" Eve shouted, pointing at their opponents. "_Upra_!"

"So you're back with that now?"

Before Aoki could say a spell, she noticed the pillar of red paint was shot at the ground and not at her. Smoke and shattered rock exploded across the field. Aoki placed a hand over her mouth and nose to keep out the smoke and dust from entering her lungs. _Where the hell did they_–

Hiding behind a chunk of pavement uprooted straight out of the ground, Eve stared at the golden book, a new spell sparkled on new pages. It was a tough decision. If she called out Sundance, he would be mauled again by that scorpion. If she took the risk, they could burn Thompson's book and have access to a new spell. But if the spell were useless, their book would be gone.

She already lost Caleb to this battle. She wouldn't be able to cope with losing Sundance, too.

Risks shouldn't be this bad.

"Sundance!" Eve screamed. Hanging off a basketball basket over Thompson and Aoki's heads, he watched her from where he sat and shook his head. He said nothing and the smoke still hadn't cleared. Aoki noticed her through the thick gloom by only the shining yellow book.

"You're finished, girly!" Aoki barked, changing the page of her book. "_Scosu Link_!"

Sundance squirmed as his leg was caught in the basketball hoop. Missiles of ink crawled out of the ground and twisted like tendrils of black silk in a circus routine, counting down to an attack. "Eve, no! Run! Get out of the way!"

"_Lomas Bleez_!" Eve shouted. Her crossed fingers wrought into the book as she anticipated the spell, staring at Sundance, pumping her heart with horror and dread. The lower half of Sundance's arm imitated the body of a slanted crescent moon and flickered through a rainbow of glittering color. He chose where to focus it and swung. The boomerang bowled toward the ink rockets and terminated all but one, then remarkably turned back at Aoki. Thompson had no time to reach her. Another windstorm of smoke took hold of their setting.

Eve stumbled out of harm's way, falling over a wedge of concrete. Even so, the ink projection connected with her leg, quicker than an X-ray scan. She couldn't deny herself a cry of pain when her calf fumed with agony and the burning smell of melted flesh. It was out of this world. She couldn't think to look at what would be left. If anything would be left.

"Why do I feel so weak? How can a couple of spells make me so exhausted?" she asked no particular soul.

Sundance miraculously tore himself out of his predicament and ran to Eve's side, touching her back. His hand was shaking. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy, thanks for asking."

He gawked like a duck. "You feel like a fruit?"

"No, it's a–"

"I fear to interrupt this intriguing conversation but hand over your book or die."

Although, Thompson's shell was no more and Aoki's face was coated in dirt and blood but otherwise they were in better condition than Sundance and Eve. Their book was as perfect as a chip of sea glass.

"Come and get it," Eve snarled. Sundance assumed a position of security in front of her. He was scraped and bruised, his fingernails bled pink, the status of the burn hole in his stomach was indescribable. His cheek was swelled and puffy and there was a hollow block in his teeth where a tooth should've been. Still, he was a child that was fighting in something like a war.

A kid fighting in a war was wrong.

Eve laid her head on the rubble and closed her eyes.

"_Take my hand_, _Eve_. _I_'_ll help you climb up_." _Caleb said_. _Fingers spread out to grab Eve_'_s hand while holding onto the tree limb subsequently with the others_. _This was way before he caught an addiction to alcohol_, _cigars that were smoked around company_. _Sindri never let her hear the end of it_. _Before Caleb was seventeen_, _the years of exploiting a bottle harmed his face and gave him the features of a man in his mid_-_twenties_. _In and out of school_, _he was more known for his life_-_threatening drinking and the dares he executed while under_-_the_-_influence_.

_Eve didn_'_t at first_. _It was her first year in high school and Caleb_'_s third_. _He intimidated her and that was why she liked him_. _He was a regular in the principal's office and in the detention room_. _He never covered his tattoos and talked back to anyone who gave him a look of pity or hate_. _He didn_'_t have too many friends and it took her longest time for him to remember to call her Eve_.

"_If you fall_, _it_'_s gonna hurt_…"

_He clutched his chest_. "_Really_, _Eve_? _I never would've guessed_."

"_I_'_m a little worried_." _Eve told him from below_.

_Caleb laughed_. "_You can always come up_."

_She did but with every drop of hesitance she had_. _Leaves and twigs were like buzzy insects and Caleb took his hand out of hers_, _turning away to check out a ruffled bird_'_s nest with branches facing most angles like cactus points_. _He laughed again_. "_Look at this_, _birds be chilling here_. _Would it be so wrong to knock this thing out of the tree and evict them out of their house_?"

"_That_'_s terrible_! _Of course_, _they would_!" _Eve defended and a made a brave move of walking closer. But her foot didn't see the bareness of air and she didn't realize she was falling until it was actually happening. Caleb saw her fall and saw her lose her balance and did nothing. _

_He saw her reach out for his hand but it did not come to aid her_. _The fall could_'_ve been seconds long but_ _it felt so much like an eternity_. _The grass broke her fall and robbed the breath out of her_.

_They stared at each other_.

_Caleb sighed_. _In his mind_, _it never happened_. "_Damn_, _I have detention again_."

_In her mind_, _it still lives on_.

Eve didn't open her eyes. Sundance held his ground, smiling icily.

"_Scasa_!"

The ink was coming again. This time it would kill and she couldn't do a thing about it. Everything was her fault, everything still is her fault. Sundance didn't do anything wrong and was getting hurt for her blunders.

Everything. Her fault.

"_Hokeigo_!"

"_Kuroguran_!"

A ball-and-chain with spikes swung toward the ink rocket and demolished it. Silver claws and aqua armor on white fur sprang over Sundance, knocking him face-first into the ground, slashed at Thompson with its razor-like nails.

Dazed from the flashback, Eve shook Sundance by his ankle. "Sun, hey, I think I finally lost it." A kid, older than Sundance, had a gray faux-hawk and tremendous black eyes. He wore leather pants and boots, a white shirt, fingerless gloves, and a leather jacket with a white cobra design on the back.

With all her fight, Eve sat up on her knees, looking back at a blonde–Seiku–and his friend that had streaks of brown in his black hair. They both held spell-books, blue and green respectively.

"Wow."

She collapsed over Sundance, unconscious, longing so much to witness a battle and not have to fight in it for once.

* * *

**_Short author's note! The flashback will play a large role in the story and the battle will continue on here. I'll try to get out another update before 2013. R&R! _**


	10. Lethal

"_Scasa_!"

"_Hokeigo_!"

"_Kuroguru_!"

"_Scosu_!"

A trundle of running feet and shouted spells were the first things Sundance perceived through his conscious mind. The ink burn was still there in all its blistered and skin-damaged glory, the black eye that was expected to flourish shifted gears and became the color of contaminated drinking water, already the size of a grapefruit.

"I'm okay," he convinced himself. "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm alive, I can fight. I can still _fight_."

Sundance opened his eyes and scrambled to his feet, trembling all the while. He couldn't see much in one eye but the other had fine observation of the battle deep in motion before him. Thompson the Scorpion fell onto his back, waggling his stubby legs in the air before popping back onto his feet like a graceless turtle. Another mamodo child with black eyes and black leather fired a laser from his mouth and hit Thompson point-blank, cracking off a final portion of his shell.

"_Scasa_!"

"_Hokkado_!"

He jumped into focus, watching an ink rocket soar over his shoulder and smash into a rotating gear shield, deflecting the blast over his shoulder back again at Thompson. The scorpion moved aside and the ink spilled across the wrecked concrete, soaking into the larger craters. The shield dissipated and footsteps clapped behind him.

Sundance made a face and Thompson glowered down at him. Maybe that scorpion thing had eyes but he couldn't see them. How else could he see without them? Unless, he didn't have eyes and could only fight by concentrating on smells and sounds.

"I got this!" he shouted to everyone and no one, arm wound back, hand in a fist.

"_Scosu_!"

Sundance braced himself to take the setback.

"Get out of the way!" the mamodo yelled, one of the two that saved his book and Eve's life. He grabbed his shirt and threw him across the field. His onyx eyes were depthless like the clouds in a sky after a hurricane's strike. Unexpectedly, Itosagi caught him and pushed him across the rock so he landed at the feet of the other book-owners. "Ishimaru, a spell!"

Ishimaru nodded and turned another page in his green book. "Got it, Chainz! _Kai Lei_!"

Sundance had spirals for eyes while on the ground, opening his mouth to laugh. "I feel…perfect."

"Burn in hell! _Scasa_!"

Itosagi launched himself back into game and sprung over Thompson, running on all-fours across the back of his enemy in direction of Aoki, unbeknownst to her mamodo. Sundance raised his head and an eyebrow, making a tiny groan at the pain that wormed through his body like an infection. The burn looked better but the impact of it was finally taking hold. There was no word to describe the picture.

"_Scosu_!"

"Is anyone else tired? No? Just me? Okay. _Kuroguru_!"

Itosagi was unnerved as he unleashed his clawed fists and shot them off his arms with the velocity of wolves dogging their next kill. Sundance stared in admiration as they hurtled into Thompson and unbalanced him, throwing him into a mound of concrete remains. Chainz tore the book out of Aoki's clumsy hands and threw it into the sky with all his might.

"_Kai Lei_!"

"Agh, what the–what…what's happening?"

Sundance missed the laser that soaked Thompson's orange book in blue fire but he did grin when Thompson's body became transparent, fading away moments later with a defeated whimper. Aoki didn't say anything else before she set off in a run, her snow-boots tracking dust. "Eve, you're okay!"

Eve nodded, clutching her forehead with the heel of her hand. "I believe I am."

She looked around to figure everything out. A rabbit with silver claws, aqua armor, and pointed fangs stood on his hind legs, a child with a gray Mohawk and pierced ears. Sundance's book cradled safe under her arm. Seiku was there and so was the guy she last saw with brown-black hair. The basketball court was no more. There was no word to define what it had become.

"Did I dream it?" Eve asked.

Seiku winked. "Not even a dream could come up with these good looks."

"I'm still here!" Sundance assured, smiling with the hole in his teeth. "Never fear!"

"Pretty sure I saw you pass out when Itosagi jumped over you," Chainz said, walking over. "Actually, the second you saw us. Your partner, at least, had the courage to stay awake for a second longer."

Eve deadpanned. "Sorry, I'm not used to fighting life-sized scorpions every day."

"That battle wasn't easy! Look at my poor tooth!" Sundance wailed, opening his mouth and pointing to the gap between teeth, blood on his gums and lower teeth. "Do you see it? No? Yeah, me neither because it's gone, _gone_! Try explaining that to your parents!"

"Try blocking your face next time."

"Poyu, poyu!"

Ishimaru smiled through their quarreling and looked at Eve. "Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Ishimaru Kamikatsu and this is my best friend–"

"We've met." Seiku answered for them and grinned when Ishimaru sent him a confused stare. "Long story."

At the memory of the story, Sundance turned to Itosagi. "I still don't like you."

Itosagi glared at him. "Poyu, poyu, poyu…"

Seiku extended a hand to Eve, smiling. "Are you actually gonna take my hand this time and not make me look like a total idiot?"

Eve stared at her hands. They were scraped and there were cuts that weren't there earlier. Risk of infection. She thought of Caleb dropping her hand while they were amongst the tree leaves, watching and doing nothing as she lost her balance and fell. "You wouldn't want to take my hand."

"Don't be so sure."

She smiled. "It's a little more complicated than that."

"_Evvvvveeeee_, help me! Itosagi won't let go!" Sundance yelled around them, tears in his eyes, sobbing her name. Even though his spell had worn off already, Itosagi possessed a sick dog's hold on Sundance's hand, not looking as if he'd budge anytime soon. "Help me, help me, help me, help meeee!"

Chainz lifted an eyebrow. "What? Why are you all looking at me? I didn't do anything."

* * *

"Where are you going?"

The man was missing, she knew. She couldn't remember his name. His face was plastered across news channels and _Missing Person_ flyers were glued to the windows of supermarkets and pharmacies from Tokyo to Osaka. The authorities must not be looking hard enough. He was wearing a big jacket that hid his arms and neck, a beanie, sunglasses, and jeans with knotted shoelaces as a belt. For someone who should be undercover, he was fearless. He stared her straight in the eye.

"That's personal," he said and dug a hand into his jacket, revealing his photo ID. He held out the picture of himself not even a second before placing it away. "You've seen my ID. May I go?"

"I also need your confirmation number and the answer to my question. Where are you going?" she said. Her hair was brown, a deep color like dark chocolate. She had green eyes and an icy smile.

He read out his confirmation number from a notepad paper and smiled through her last question. "Lithuania. That's all I'll say. Can I go now?"

"Your flight leaves in forty-five minutes. Enjoy."

The corner of a blue book was tucked in his suitcase. It wasn't entirely closed but she didn't see much in there. He offered her a bitter smile and went on his way. A child with pink hair that sat in a waiting chair ran after him, making it to his side, jabbering, beaming. She didn't see them sit among the people as he plugged his ears with headphones and ignored the babbling girl, pretending to listen.

Under her desk, she touched a chartreuse book. She would need to phone Viola and explain the situation. What were the odds that the missing guy was traveling with a mamodo?

It was unthinkable, unimaginable.

But it was sadly real.

* * *

"Will my tooth grow back?" Sundance asked whoever was listening.

Eve sprinkled her yogurt with chopped strawberries and pineapple. The healthiest thing she ate all week. Since meeting Sundance, she's been eating with him at donut shops, pizza parlors, and ice cream huts everywhere. His abnormal appetite didn't help because he could eat hot sauce as a topping to pancakes and not get sick. When she got out of the shower, he was ripping through the garbage bag to eat the food that remained.

"With your weird food habits, I sure hope so," Eve washed a spoon in the kitchen sink before dipping it in the plastic cup.

"Oh." Sundance responded, wiggling the tooth beside the one that was knocked out. His hand that was bit by Itosagi was wrapped in bandages. "Eve, I have a question."

"Shoot."

He blinked. "Shoot what? Eve, that–"

She picked a strawberry out of the container and ate it. "What's the question, Sundance?"

"When we go rescue Caleb, would you want to talk with him? I don't know, ask him something or plead with him not to fight because when Sindri yells at you, he calls him a lot of words you tell me not to say in public and you always defend him. He drinks a lot and you defend that, too. Why?" Sundance whispered, forming a thinking face.

Eve played with her yogurt. Hunger eliminated. "I'll answer one of your questions as bluntly and quickly as I can. My boyfr–Caleb was and never will be a good guy. He scared me to death but he grew on me. If you hadn't shown up when you did, he probably would've killed me. I know this from…personal experience. Talking to him won't do us any good. He'll listen but he won't care. If I actually had the chance, I would kill him. No, I'm serious. I would and I wouldn't regret it. I _do _want to help him but there is no easy way, he's done terrible, terrible things and as much as I hate being the bad guy, we have to fight back and sometimes you have to learn that the hard way. We stayed together until one of us lost it, I cared but he didn't. It makes no sense if you think about it."

Sundance became serious. His heart entered a lethal place. "Why did you…?"

She turned to him and smiled, looking sad and angry. "Because he said he would break me and he succeeded."

* * *

**_I made my deadline! For once! Can anyone believe that? I'll be celebrating with some eggnog, it's holiday season and the only time I could drink this without looking stupid. I wouldn't be able to take myself seriously by drinking eggnog in August. 2013, so close yet so far. Expect the next update then! R&R!_**


	11. Fearless

"Thanks to you, my most treasured Sundance, I had to buy that huge carton of cookie dough because a certain _someone _was caught eating out of it by the store manager." Eve said, wobbling down the walkway with four bags from the supermarket and Sundance's book shut away in her purse. He dove into a dumpster prior to their market visit and ate through burned pizza slices and frozen waffles. "Next time, ask me first, please. This is Sindri's debit card not mine."

Sundance nodded understandingly, eating fistfuls of cookie dough assorted with chocolate chips and raisins. "You can have some if you want."

Eve smiled, crossing the street while he gripped her ankle in substitute for her hand. "I appreciate the offer but I'll pass. Just don't let Sindri see you eating all of that, he'll blame me for corrupting you with junk food."

He frowned, stretching his neck like a giraffe to identify their apartment complex from where they were. A speck of a child sat on the cracked stoop, he knew her face but he couldn't quite place it with a name. Her skin was cut with scars caused by different trauma but not all were apparent features on her face, her red-brown hair–the color of lava rocks–was wildly laced across her shoulders, under her brown eyes were blue stripes that didn't appear to be painted on. Her blue tunic and black pants were an impossibly neat fixture for a child.

Sundance sniffed the air. That definitely wasn't just _any _child.

"I'll be right back!" he assured Eve, running at his fastest to reach the apartment front. Eve shouted after him, demanding that he wait and not try to break a window again to get inside. Sindri threatened to place him in foster-care if he ever thought to retry it.

The girl didn't react when she saw his face. She had the stone-face of a mass-murderer. "Sundance, a pleasure to see you again, I'm surprised that your book is still here, safe and sound."

Sundance laughed, not catching on to the irony in her tone. "It wasn't an easy feat! My partner and I just got into this intense battle a few days ago with a _scorpion_, no joke. I lost a tooth, her leg was burned! You have no idea how bad i…hold up, just how do you know my name?"

"I didn't see you deny it," she said, kicking the ground. "You need to come with me. We need to talk about something of great importance."

Sundance blinked, lost on her concept. "W-What are you talking about?"

"What the hell is your problem, Sundance!?"

Eve materialized at his side, huffing, releasing the bags from her arms and poking Sundance hard in the forehead. "I…tell…you…all the time not to run ahead of me and look what you do! Quit it already, you're wearing my patience thin and I swear if you ever do that aga–sorry, little girl. I'm not normally like this, are you okay?"

"N-No…"

Sundance nodded. "I'm okay."

"I wasn't _talking_ to you."

The unidentified girl raised a hand as if she were in a classroom and trying to get the teacher's attention. "Are you Sundance's book-keeper?"

Eve frowned, her emotions back in line. She really wasn't looking to face-off with another mamodo today. The second-degree burn on her leg hadn't disappeared like magic yet and she jogged herself to the pharmacy to grab an overpriced bottle of burn-treating ointment that stings her leg to the touch. It could be worse. "I am."

"Oh yes. I figured as much."

"I thought you were saying something before her rude interruption," Sundance ended with a whimper when Eve kicked him in the tailbone, acting like it never happened.

She nodded. She was a little shorter than Sundance but her dominance level rose much higher. "Please, I'd rather not discuss it here. I'd appreciate it if you both come with me."

* * *

"What a beautiful day," Phil said, turning his camera lens to focus on a bird's nest cradling a circle of freckled blue eggs, perfect like porcelain. "The sun is singing, the birds are shining…today couldn't be better."

Resh climbed out of the playground swing, confused and baffled. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," he reassured, amusement in his voice. "I was just reminiscing to myself about the nice morning. No storm clouds, no tantrum-throwing children, it's all real. Something you can only imagine in a storybook novel."

She nodded. Although so young, her intelligence was astounding. "Oh, I see." Resh took a gaze around and admired the scenery, Phil doing the same but instead through the eye of his camera. Trees with chipped bark and branches sagging with amber leaves, small children playing in the sandbox, birds tweaking their nests with their pointy beaks. "The day's been quiet, lucky for us. I haven't sensed a mamodo all day."

"Good for us." Phil said, rotating the camera around the scene. "But it's almost too good to be true, you know."

Resh gave out a smile and wound her fingers through her hair, catching in a few knots. "I understand but it shouldn't be this easy. I don't know. Someone must be planning something or that something must be coming because this makes absolutely no sense. Never has a mamodo battle been this easy."

"A mamodo's intuition, I see." Phil murmured, turning his video screen so he could watch what he was filming. A cluster of crunched leaves and trash, squirrels and other wildlife tearing across the terrain, and something unimaginable, something only a twisted dream could invoke. A mechanical thing with the body and width of a satellite had twitching antennas and spindly legs. Buttons swelling out of its back blinked and sputtered a rainbow light.

Phil rubbed his sleeve across the lens, thinking he was in a mirage. Resh performed a fighter's stand, a guarded cloud in her gaze.

Soon after she did that, the satellite thing started shooting white lasers like bullets, scaring parents and children. The park became an explosion of shrieking, deserted belongings, and begging of the people lost in the dirt and wind.

Phil placed away his camera, held open Resh's book instead. "You got what you wanted, Resh. The game isn't easy anymore."

* * *

The mamodo child steered them into a restaurant Eve never knew existed. Fuzzy red velvet wallpaper covered the walls, gray plastic beads replaced doors and curtains. There was no maître d' to hand them menus when they arrived or any other waiter behind the bar to serve them. Diners ate their meals with no disruption.

"Sundance, I'm not feeling this. I think we should just run." Eve whispered to him, crouching at his shoulder. "On three. I promise, I won't tell anyone we chickened out."

Sundance turned to her, pouting, definitely loathing her idea. "I'm not a chicken. There's one of her and one of us. Even if we came to blows, we could so take her."

"How do you know there's only one of her? There could be more, you just had to open your stupid mouth–"

The little mamodo girl tapped Eve on the elbow. Her hand was cold as she lifted it and pointed out someone unseen behind a menu. "We are finally here. I would like you meet someone." She went ahead and executed a joyous salute, beaming.

The person–a girl–set down her menu, smiling like the room was made of glass and she knew who would destroy it. Her brown hair was stuck in a ponytail, her green eyes twinkly. She was bedecked in a ruffly pink dress, straw sandals, and had rings of white makeup under her eyes with black lining. A chartreuse book under her hand that was meant to be recognized.

"You don't look like a strong bunch, I'll say," she said with an accent thicker than mud. "A teeny-tiny mamodo boy and a girl that looks like a prostitute but uses her intelligence for nothing. Could you not find a better duo, Viola?"

Sundance exploded. "Teeny-tiny!? I'll show you! Don't underestimate me! I'm better than you! I can fight! I'll _show both of you_! Let me at 'em, let me at 'em!"

Eve held him back by his shirt collar as he ran in place, screaming like a maniac. But her expression was less than thrilled by her comments. "Sundance, don't get so worked-up over a chick that's dressed like circus freak."

"Circus freak? Oh, that's a new one."

"Let go, Eve!"

"Shut up, Sundance."

Viola tilted her face away. "Lilja?"

Lilja smirked. "I guess you don't want to know about that missing man, no? Oh, how I was thinking of telling you two about his whereabouts but your rudeness makes me rethink–"

Eve glared at her. "Start talking."

"You'll have to work for it this time. You win, I'll tell you. I win, his book is mine."

Sundance gasped. He was suddenly calm and a hint of fear tolled in his voice. "Eve, we can't! Our last fight, remember?"

Eve didn't hesitate.

"Bring it."

* * *

**_Sorry for the short chapter and the terrible procrastination. Deadlines are my weak point. R&R! 2013 resolution? Fight procrastination!_**


	12. Careful

Eve brought Lilja, Viola, and Sundance to the stadium field of East Tokyo High. It was just recently emptied out after one of their more productive matches against a high school in Osaka. Popcorn bags and warm soda in plastic cups were flattened across the bleachers. The sky was faded to lavender, the shadow of a first-quarter moon across it. Although set for the scene of battle, it was something to admire for hours until it was gone.

Lilja popped open Viola's book but a spell didn't follow. Her eyebrows came together like the cross between roads. "I spot a camera."

Eve stopped for a second. The book in her hand was closed. "A camera? Wait, wait, I know what you're talking about. Those things haven't worked in years. I don't think the management here ever noticed."

"What's the need for cameras? Really, what is there to steal out of a stadium? The recycle bin, an extra soccer ball? People these days, idiots, the lot of them," Lilja said, frowning as if the demise of humanity were upon them.

"Tell me about it! It was something involving vandalism. Years back, a whole load of kids used to come along here and graffiti things that should never be said in public in the school hallways and locker rooms. Nobody was ever caught so there goes a brilliant waste of money, courtesy of a lovely high school." Eve advised, pointing at a blank-screened camera, its lens blocked off with clumps of pink gum. Lilja examined it with interest.

Sundance raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were supposed to battle."

Viola pointed him a glare. "Shhhh!"

"Well now, I feel like we forgot something," Lilja assumed, tapping her chin with her forefinger. "Oh, oh, oh, I remember! I believe we scheduled a fight to the death here."

Eve sighed. "Oh yeah, that. I forgot."

Sundance frowned. "Why can't I have a guy partner?"

"_Upra_!"

A spiraling blast of red paint shot toward Lilja and Viola, which both girls simply sidestepped and watched as it spilt across the grass, sizzling red and dissipating soon after. Viola charged toward Sundance, knocking him straight in the chin with her foot, he caught her ankle but she kneed him in the abdomen, bringing him to the floor, coughing, spitting. He reached for her leg but she kicked his hand away, two of his tiny fingers abnormally twisted.

Eve winced.

Lilja smiled. "_Ezo_."

Viola turned to Eve, a crossbow materialized in her arms, pointing the barrel at her, eye in the scope. Sundance flounced back to his feet, throwing himself into Viola without the aid of a spell. His arms wrapped around her neck while locked onto her back, trying to dislocate or break something. Amidst the scuffle, Viola growled and elbowed Sundance over her shoulder, collapsing the hold one arm had on her but losing the crossbow in her hand instead as she writhed like an insect in a spider web to pry him off her.

"A spell would be pretty nice, Eve!" Sundance yelled after her.

Eve nodded, broken free from her daze. "Damn, sorry! _Upra_!"

Sundance blasted Viola's back with red paint and promptly climbed off her before she could strike him again. She murmured an encouragement to herself, the drippy paint having seared through her shirt and blistered her skin with splotches of second-degree burns, dirtied with oddly-placed blisters. He skated back over to Eve, tripping on his shoelaces.

"I meant a _strong _spell."

"Seeing as all we have is a boomerang, a purple shield, and a red paint beam that does, excuse me, _nothing_. Cut me some slack here, I'm doing my best."

Lilja's smile twitched with laughter. "Three spells? That's unfortunate. Fortunately, I have more. _Quarrelo Ezo_, _Quarrelo Ezo_,_ Quarrelo Ezo_!"

Viola retrieved her crossbow and pointed it at Sundance and Eve, teeth clenched behind a turned lip. The barrel of it shimmered and bubbled gold and three clusters of light rolled forward. Viola set into a run, between the globes of light, to strike them with her metal crossbow.

"_Lebashi_!" Eve shouted. Sundance's purple shield jumped to defend and the balls of light collapsed into it, stopping there and changing to orange, flickering like time-bombs that were seconds away from exploding.

Sundance ran into Eve and threw them both back, staying floored as the orbs of light burst into flames and dissolved, harming nothing.

"_Quarrelo Ezo_."

Viola ran over, crossbow rose like a sword, boiling with gold. Sundance caught it between his hands, trying to redirect it before it could injure him or Eve as she scrambled to her feet, backing away. He closed his eyes, enduring the blunt of the attack as light became fire, burning more than just clothes. Viola headbutted him, his sleeve in her grasp as she smashed the stock of her crossbow into his face, giving him a twist of whiplash as he collapsed.

When he touched his nose, the fingers came away dark with blood. Nothing like paint.

Viola saw what she inflicted to his face. A fractured or if lucky, a severely bruised nose, a chipped tooth that apparently scraped his mouth. Dark blood like black feathers gushed out of his nostrils and through his shaking fingers. For a moment, she felt guilty for what she caused so she was temporarily dazed with remorse. A face that looked so delicate and unbreakable-looking could have the density of steel but what she had seen could scar a conscience.

Remorse made her open to attack.

The remorse that claimed her gave Sundance that exact chance.

"_Lomas Bleez_! Honestly Sundance, can't you have one normal-sounding spell?"

Sundance's arm became a boomerang and he released it, glittering like a rainbow. Viola dodged its first swing but wasn't quick enough to evade it as it came back around. She turned her face but it collided with the back of her cranium, flying back over to Sundance and reconnecting as a normal half of his arm. Dirt stormed across the field, covering their feet.

"Did we win?" Eve asked.

Sundance panted, holding his nose tighter. "No…"

With a wordless shriek of vengeance, Viola raced back to her feet, looking bemused. Lilja appeared emotionless, slightly amused while her crossbow was rested along the stands.

"Would you like a spell, Viola?"

"No!"

"Have it your way."

Viola went after Sundance full-force, apology dead and gone. She tackled him to the ground, spreading grass stains across his white shirt. Sundance blocked most of her punches but took a good number of them to his face, kicking, squirming. Eve watched in a panic, clutching his book to her chest, biting her fingernails in a way to help her strategize their next move. But she had nothing.

Lilja had Viola's book closed, not exactly paying attention to the face-off but not ignoring it either. An idea that could work swam through Eve's head.

_Fingers crossed. If this doesn_'_t work_,_ I_'_m done for_. Eve thought.

"This isn't normal! What are these things?" Resh asked anyone. She knew she wouldn't receive an answer but it was worth a shot. The satellite bug sprayed red lasers across the playground. Everyone except for her and Phil deserted the park already, screaming until their voices cracked, phoning the police station and fire department but receiving static instead of support on the line. "Definitely not a mamodo. Phil, what do you say?"

He laughed but it appeared sour. "Nothing for once, let's just destroy this thing before it can cause further havoc."

Resh nodded. "Good idea."

"_Mirar_!"

Phil watched as Resh brought forward a mirror that launched a blinding beam of light at the metallic insect. It distracted the thing from creating disaster and focused what eyes it had on the pair, choosing them as its next target. Resh moved to strike their opponent but Phil caught her shoulder in time, his grip like his eyes were cautious.

"I don't know about that thing, Resh. We don't know what those lasers could do if they hit us." he reminded, keeping a reluctant glance on their opponent.

"We have to take a risk. It's us versus that thing. Obviously, we won't have any help from the city. I can't even hear the closest siren from here. It can't be possible unless sometime happened with the phone lines." Resh said, frowning at her declaration.

Their opponent blasted lasers at them and Resh ducked out of their range with ease while maneuvering Phil out of danger's path. One laser cut through Phil's sleeve and had no further effect. Resh raced toward the monster with the dedication of an athlete.

"Give me a spell, Phil!"

"Gotcha, _Gigano Mirar_!"

A larger, more focused version of her previous spell blew forward and as it discharged, their enemy accepted the burst of light without a countering defense. The metal shell chipped and red wires streamed out, ragged like torn silk and hanging like a bell from a tower. Other than that, the attack did nothing to permanently damage anything and Resh froze.

Phil glanced over. "You okay?"

She said nothing but started into a sprint that could rival an Olympian's. Their enemy seemed to figure out what she realized and took several paces back, no longer shooting lasers. A fragment of iron cracked off its back as it escaped the area with Resh stomping after it. Phil followed, reluctant, uncertain.

"Resh?"

"Stop!" she yelled after the enemy. "Phil, give me a spell, hurry!"

Phil scrambled to find the right page for an attack spell. "Hold up, hold up–"

Just as suddenly as it arrived, the satellite monster disappeared into the ground. It closed its body up like a startled turtle and slowly drilled itself into the dirt until it was gone. Resh's expression deflated and she stamped a foot.

"I couldn't be any more lost. Explain, Resh?" Phil asked, approaching her.

"There's nothing to explain," Resh whispered as an explanation. "All I know is that something bad is going to happen and soon."

* * *

Eve glanced behind her and started biting her nails again, accidentally catching skin. Sundance fended off Viola but not without hassle. Lilja closed the book finally and Sundance took an elbow to the chest, stealing the wind out of him.

"I'm sorry, Sundance," Eve said, biting her pinkie nail until it reached its shortest.

He made a confused sound. "Huh?"

Sundance and Viola watched as Eve set off in a mad-dash, running behind the bleachers until the _squeak_-_squeak _of her sneakers in grass was unheard of. The three remaining on the field were confused.

Lilja _hmm_'d. "_Hvað gat hún verið að skipuleggja_? _Stúlkan er í raun að nota fleygt gáfur hennar_."

As much as he could, Sundance used his voice. "What'd she say?"

Viola shrugged, straightening her elbow on his collarbone.

Sundance admitted a sigh of exhaustion. He pressed his head in the grass and heard footsteps. Focusing on the sound, he looked from his residence on the ground. Viola comprehended the sound next and jumped off Sundance but he seized her ankles, leaving her immobile. Her eyes were terrified but not for her benefit.

"Lilja, behind you!"

Eve threw her body into Lilja's before she could look in the sense that her weight could initiate a downfall. It did take off Lilja's balance but didn't do much else. Eve took a risky move and reached for the book in Lilja's hand and even felt her fingers scrape its corner, a thing that made her so thrilled she froze. Emotionless, Lilja captured Eve's wrist, bending it so quick and easy that her scream wasn't timed right. Sundance called out her name and while Eve was distracted, she shoved her to the ground, pointing her the glare her father would present Sindri when he preferred to watch the news channel over sports. Soulless eyes, cold mouth.

Sundance looked ashamed.

Lilja turned away.

Eve rose quietly, stumbling to remain on balance. Her wrist wasn't looking right, it wouldn't move. If she looked at it, she would scream again so she ignored it. If you can't see it, it's not there.

She reached for Lilja's shoulder, anything to damage, but her opponent stooped out of way and pushed Eve back down. The chartreuse book held in the hand furthest from her, the back of her sandal on Eve's knee. She exhaled against the acrid smell of grass shavings.

"You're finished, no?"

Sundance was humiliated. His book was a few feet away from both of them. The pages splayed across the ground, crinkling in the air.

Viola freed her ankles from his feeble hands and combed through her pockets, a wrinkled gray handkerchief came to her hand and she opened it in Sundance's lap. She didn't smile but her eyes were soft.

He pressed it to his nose and did nothing else.

"What happened to your big talk? I thought you to be a fighter. The battle sure was amusing, a good workout." Lilja said, icy smile back on. "Isn't there something you want to say, dollface? Not hearing your resentment brings me anxiety."

"If you're going to burn it, let me know."

"Burn what?"

Eve moved her head, breathing out through her nose. "Please stop acting stupid. I mean, Sundance's book. If you're going to burn it, let me know or knock me out or do whatever you please. Just…just let me know so I can leave here, I really rather not watch."

Lilja laughed, loud. There was something so phony about her, it had no label. It felt like part of a plan, like she wanted her opponents to think of her as an introverted, bizarrely-dressed girl. Artificial face, artificial personality.

"Sundance and you have beautiful potential and the most _astounding _will I've ever seen," she said, falling back a few steps. "As of the moment, your spells are…moderate and if worked right, you could've kept up with us. But what you two are lacking is something great, something that made your loss so much more enjoyable."

Sundance raged to his feet, shouting. "What is that exactly?"

"Teamwork," Viola chirped, turning to her book-owner. "Isn't that right?"

Lilja nodded before Sundance or Eve could protest. "Not once did either of you consult one another during the battle and instead of using the book to assist your mamodo–" She smiled at Eve and degraded her. "You attempted to steal _my_ book without a strategy, ditching your own like garbage. I understand your motives but what you did was dangerous and blatantly foolish."

Eve crawled to Sundance's book like an energized mouse, sliding it into her lap. It wasn't a dream. Her wrist still wouldn't move. She had scratches between the bandages on her fingers and the throbbing feeling of bruises before they come. There goes another defeat, another humiliation.

"But we won't burn your book," Lilja admitted, calling over Viola with a whistle. "Make use of that potential and don't bash heads so much, your opponents next time around won't be so kind. Oh, before I forget, Caleb and his mamodo are in Lithuania if you're still curious. Ticket booked for Vilnius, a short drive away from Trakai Island Castle, barred from common people due to monster sightings. Connect the dots."

Lilja went to leave, passing Viola and Sundance, her mamodo dogging after her like a companion animal. Sundance tried to give Viola her handkerchief back but she declined it.

"Viola, Lilja, wait, wait!" Sundance called out, shaking an arm.

"Yes?"

"You should…I think you guys should join our alliance."

Lilja glared. "We work alone."

* * *

"It's not exactly a mamodo presence but…it's something different." Amera shared with Resh, following the exact steps of Resh's path. "I understand what you mean now by feeling so mind-boggled. You said it disappeared here, right?"

Resh watched as Amera dropped to the ground, putting her ear on the dirt to listen for an alien sound. There was anything she couldn't hear but it was as if listening to a television on mute. She wasn't skeptical over Resh's claims since the same thing was reported over the news. Phone lines were all static in the mêlée at the playground, no sign of police detectives or fire trucks. There was yellow tape blocking off the playground as of now but the city officials chose to begin a search the next day for no real reason.

"It did, a satellite with legs." Phil laughed in the background and she couldn't not crack a smile at the humor in the situation. "Just started shooting at people and when we fought back, it fled after a while. You haven't seen anything like it?"

Amera turned to Kyo in a silent way of asking him the same. "Not that I know of."

"Me neither," Kyo shrugged.

Phil stared into the sky. It was already dark. The moon was a lustrous crater in the sky. "Why don't we save this for tomorrow? Get around to telling the others. We really have no evidence right now."

Amera and Kyo agreed with immediate _okays_.

Resh sighed. She didn't want to agree.

* * *

After an hour in the hospital, Eve having to get her wrist X-rayed, diagnosed a fracture, and fixed into a splint, she bribed Sundance with ice-cream after he threw a fit and got herself a Diet Coke from the corner-store. They were on their way back to the apartment complex when they ran into someone, tired and confused.

Seiku smiled over them, swapping glances with Eve and Sundance. Itosagi was not with him and he wore a white shirt, jeans, and a green jacket. Anyone looked better than her as of today. She didn't mind seeing him but looking like trash wasn't how she wanted to see anyone. Her sweater closed over her shirt and shorts. The air was warm but her hands were cold, shaking since Lilja and Viola left them to live.

"What are you doing out so late? Partying after the big game?" Eve asked, entertaining herself with him. Sundance watched them, confused, like he was stuck on a pop quiz question.

Seiku looked at her from a different angle. "Unfortunately since today is Thursday, the answer is no. I was just hanging out at Ishimaru's. What caused the wrist injury?"

Eve flinched, remembering Lilja catching her wrist and turning it like a wheel. "Mamodo battle we just couldn't win."

"You should've called someone, one of your friends or us." he proposed, lifting an eyebrow.

"It's just my wrist. Casualty on the battleground, uglier things have happened."

Seiku tilted his head back at her, smiling again. "You're really stubborn, you know that."

Eve's face was less poised than it was before, her eyes wide like rings. "I am not stubborn, I am _practical_."

"Practical, yeah, we'll go with that."

"I am! You're such a–"

He stooped his height to be closer to her face. She stumbled back a couple of steps and caught herself, almost laughing at herself for becoming so crazed over her emotions. "What were you saying?"

"I…I don't k–"

Underneath their feet, the pavement rumbled as if they were standing outside during a hurricane, watching neighboring houses get ripped out of the ground and float in the wind. It stopped in about a second but she staggered into Seiku, the expansion of space between them shattered, and they connected with a kiss. Their eyes were opened wide, a peace in the air.

It was nice.

"Are you guys done? It's been over a minute." Sundance asked, pouting to the irony.

Eve pushed herself away from Seiku, holding her face to hide her blush and looking down.

Seiku laughed. "Wow."

* * *

The pavement shook, cracking, rattling the buildings on the block threateningly. One of them collapsed, luckily abandoned a long time ago, spitting plumes of black smoke and dust and rubble everywhere. In the night, hundreds of red eyes watched, like thousands of parasites initiating an attack sequence.

* * *

**_That finishes another chapter, my longest yet for this story. 3,318 words! I had so much trouble with that last paragraph for some reason. I'll do my best to battle writers' block next time, promise. R&R!_**

**_Before I forget, here's the transalation for the Icelandic phrase that Lilja said. I can't speak Icelandic, thank Google Translate._**

**_Hvað gat hún verið að skipuleggja? Stúlkan er í raun að nota fleygt gáfur hennar. - What could she be planning? The girl is actually using her discarded intelligence._**


	13. We're All Water

The metal spiders are called temblors. They fire infrared lasers that can briefly paralyze humans and scan a mamodo's body for weaknesses before transforming themselves into a weapon to annihilate their opponent. Scientists programmed them to protect but they became disobedient. The scientists isolated them in their labs, locking them in cages, handling them like sewer rats. After realizing the gift they had, they broke out of their cages and killed their constructors. The blueprints were burned and the temblors were never to be seen again.

It's said that they followed the mamodo to the human world. But without knowing where they lie, it's impossible to go after them and terminate them all at once.

There has only been one known method in destroying them. One of the leading scientists wrote it down once. It's simple but battling a temblor is not. If not killed quickly, they can wreak incredible havoc to the lives of humans and demons. To hide, they burrow underground and come together to attack at once, like wolves. They're able to cause natural disasters when all together. The temblors have bodies of soldiers but minds of scholars.

Resh sighed after her explanation. "Do you understand now?"

Phil nodded. He said nothing for a few minutes. "Wow. I mean, _wow_. We're talking about the death of humanity here."

She sighed again and closed her eyes. "Yes. When we discussed them with Amera and Kyo, it looked like they were hesitant in believing me, which is understandable. But that earthquake wasn't natural. It would've have happened like that."

Journalists, reporters, and newspaper columnists have been discussing the collapse of the Yoshimura Museum's left wing. Rubble crumbled into dust and spoiled the air with smoke. Three people were injured by flying glass. Weather forecasters called it an earthquake despite nothing else being damaged or out of the ordinary, seismic patterns remaining the same.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Phil asked, holding out his hands like he could hold an option.

"Not at the moment. If it were to excel, I'm sure we'd be compelled to step in…" Resh turned away and sighed at the sky. "Right this minute, our main focuses are the battle, our lives, and my book being safe, selfish as that may sound. The temblors aren't a main priority to anyone, the humans or us."

Phil lifted an eyebrow.

Resh sighed like she was hurt. It was nice out but their moods didn't fall under the same category. "That sounded better in my thoughts."

"Word vomit."

"Accurate."

"Every dog has its day. Come on, let's take a walk."

Resh didn't move. She remained sitting on the sidewalk, frowning grumpily. Her voice was intimidating, a snarl.

"I am _not _a dog."

"You–I–that's not what I–sorry. Word vomit."

* * *

"To your left, Amera! _Gadyuu Sorusen_!"

Amera turned away, a beam of black fire catching her arm and her dress. It singed her skin but she fought against it, moving into a run, holding her sword like a baseball bat. The sword burned with a ring of orange flames, sparkling red. Orange and black fire clashed, shooting embers across the dirt ground. They wisped into the air, vanishing, smoke and dust merging.

Amera swung her sword at Joshua, getting through to skin. Dark blood soaked through the shoulder of his shirt. He grunted and sent out a punch. His hand was slow and she effortlessly dodged it. He caught Amera's fist and threw her into the air, leaping a few feet back.

"_Gadyuu Sorusen_!"

Amidst the air, Amera turned her blade down, fingers crossed over the hilt. Her eyes burned with devotion.

"Joshua, what are you doing just _standing _there? Get a move on!" Joshua's book-owner, Vincent screamed. His book glowed bright, stressing the gray splotches under his eyes. His smile was discerning. "Rakuda!"

Joshua took to the air and teleported, disappearing into nothing. The fire in Amera's sword died out. It was silver again.

"Where did he–"

"_Fermenta_!"

Amera was too slow. She watched as Joshua materialized in her face, handling a spinning orb of fire. He launched it into her stomach and it exploded into her, kicking up smoke and dirt.

"Amera!" Kyo screamed, turning pages faster in her yellow book, needing a good spell.

"I'm fine!" she called out, moving a hand over the welt on her stomach. It was painful but not serious "Just give me a spell!"

"_Sorusen_!"

Joshua was running through the dust, a hand over his nose. Amera broke out her sword, white with power, a light in the mist. She held her ground and threw herself back into battle, screaming like a warrior. Joshua swept a leg under her feet but she caught herself. She dropped her sword and pushed back on her heel, kicking him in the jaw. She took a breath and kicked again before he could react. Bone cracked under her foot.

He groaned through the pain, grabbing her ankle. "You–"

"_Fermenta_!"

It was clearer. Kyo and Vincent could watch her be pummeled and return to the mamodo world like a disgrace. She tried to reach her sword but Joshua's foot came down over her fingers, breaking them. She gasped. They would heal but the surprise made it hurt.

"Amera, move! Move!" Kyo was looking at the book, looking for a spell. His eyes were jagged with fear. "Get out of there!"

She didn't. So suddenly, Amera felt cold in and out of her body. "Please be quick."

There was another increase of dust as Joshua released the ball of fire. Amera vaguely heard Kyo call her name and Vincent call out Joshua's. There was a crater beside her head and smoke was breathing out of it. He missed intentionally.

He moved to her face, whispering. A cracked voice, webbed with weariness. "Burn my book."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"You heard me. Burn it, destroy it. Fast."

Vincent's voice rang in the smoke. "What are you doing, Josh? Get back here now!"

Joshua stared at her impatiently. He clambered to his feet and ran back to his partner. Amera remained where she was, staring around like she didn't know where to go. What would cause his partner to be like that? There were said to be selfish humans in this world but this one was bizarre. A skeleton of someone else like Caleb when he laughed and spat insults at them.

"The book's…glowing. We have a new spell."

Amera turned around. She didn't see much of Kyo but she did catch the yellow light of her book in the gray. Her voice was soft. "Say it, Kyo."

"_Boru Sarusen_!"

The dust was cleared and she ran through it, faster than she's ever been. Sword clutched in shaking fingers. Joshua accidentally jerked his body into Vincent's, waiting, and he relaxed his hand on the book. She took her sword and sawed through the book, knocking it out of Vincent's hand.

Joshua was instantly translucent like a ghost. The halves of his book were enflamed green.

"No!" Vincent said in retribution, the gray half-rings under his eyes turning blue, an ocean color. He batted his hand across the book, burning his fingers red. "This can't be happening! No, no, no, it can't be! Josh!"

Amera placed away her sword. Joshua's eyes were closed in peace.

"Who did this to you?" she asked. He was a ghost, an illusion before death.

He opened his eyes. The light in his eyes was calm. "Ophelia, she–" He looked at his partner, sobbing over the ashes of his book, begging him to stay. "I wouldn't have won anyway."

"Josh–"

"Take care." Joshua said, smiling, vanishing like sugar dissolving into water.

Amera frowned, looking away. "I'm sorry."

* * *

_**I enjoyed writing this chapter and not writing Sundance + Eve into it for once. I just couldn't get it right with them in it and I was constantly rewriting the whole thing. I had some severe writers' block. The next update should be sooner, swear on my laptop. R&R!**_


	14. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

"There's an enemy near." Ophelia specified, poking Caleb's shoulder to warn him. He was sitting on the floor with his eyes closed, twisting a dagger around in his hands. He was nineteen but he didn't look it. There was bloat in his stomach, an evident puffiness in his eyelids. There was only one nice thing about him and that was his eye color, dark turquoise like an ocean. She complimented Caleb on them a week ago and he said he knew. His tone was flat. "Caleb, were you listening? I said–"

His eyes opened. Caleb frowned like he'd rather be someone else. "I _heard _you. I just chose to ignore you."

"We can't take any chances." she advised, pointing him to her book. It was under a jacket with its pages splayed out under it. The spine cracked and the pages stained by dirt-spotted fingerprints. "Get my book. We'll check for intruders. I hear one mamodo and one human trying to be quiet. Oh, they stink like gutter bugs. Don't humans take showers?"

Caleb grabbed the book and tucked the knife under his shirt. "Deal with it."

Ophelia walked him through different hallways. She moved like a cat, silent and graceful. Caleb wasn't a loud-walker but he wasn't quiet either. The enemy was quick to catch up. Caleb couldn't get a good eye on them before the book-owner, a girl with her black hair tied back in a braid and blue eyes opened a spell book.

Her mamodo had roses curled through her pale pink hair and a red eye, the color of a fire-engine. A rose-shaped eye patch was placed over the other. Her ruffled dress and long boots were the same color of her hair, folded at the top.

"It's you," The book-owner said, turning to her book. "I should've known…you were right, Lulubell."

Lulubell smiled at her partner. "No time to chat, Luna. Give me a spell!"

"Okay! _Haradi_!"

Lulubell summoned and fired sharp rose petals at them. Ophelia dodged them and watched as they hurtled over her, cracking parts of the historic walls but not hitting the enemy.

"You need to work on your aim," Ophelia said with a smile.

"Shut up!" Lulubell sneered and started running, lifting her fist to Ophelia. Her eyes were dark, her fists clenched. Ophelia twirled out of her direction and raised her hands.

"Violent, aren't you? Watch your words. This is my turf and I don't like your tone."

Caleb turned a page in Ophelia's book. His eyes were dark. "_Reysa_."

Dozens of ice needles burst out of Ophelia's hands and shot at their opponents. They sparkled like icicles and were quicker than gunshots in a warzone. A human could never dodge them.

"_Harima_!" Luna shouted, pointing at the ice needles, her book glowing.

A shield that resembled a rafflesia plant caught the spikes in its middle, its freckled petals closing over and reflecting them, faster than before, their virgin white diluted to pink. Ophelia received the blunt of them, smiling, eyes closed like a masochist. Cuts spattered with blood marred her arms and face. Caleb didn't look worried. They were a team but not a functioning one.

"_Llomo_!" Luna screamed, the book in her hand shining like a flashlight in the dark.

A rose vine webbed with thorns burst out of the ground and wrapped around Ophelia whole body, pushing sharp things into her bones like pins in a voodoo doll. She couldn't move anything except her head.

"Interesting spell," Ophelia praised, lifting her eyes to Caleb like it bored her. "If I were able to move my hands, I'd applaud you." The vine crawled up to her throat and squeezed, Ophelia gasped and the color in her face changed. It went from an average white to a soft blue. Caleb watched with her same face of negligence.

"Drop the book and your partner gets to live another day." Lulubell instructed, making a fist and jerking the vine around Ophelia's neck like a whip. She gasped again, her face the color of a bruise, red and purple.

Caleb scowled. "You're the reason I never want a child." He turned pages in Ophelia's book slowly. Watching Ophelia like an experiment, he smiled coldly and presented them his teeth with it. They were gray from poor oral hygiene. Some were crooked, some weren't. A crack ran down the middle of a front tooth. "_Ralox_."

Ophelia opened her mouth and dozens of ice beetles crawled out of it, spilling down her chin. They exploded all at once, shooting thorns and ice splinters everywhere. Lulubell and Luna crossed their arms over their faces to protect them. Ophelia sprang back over to Caleb but she was slow-moving. There were welts from where the thorns bit into her skin around her neck.

Caleb acknowledged her with a glare. "Nice going."

Ophelia was unable to answer as Lulubell struck out. She was quicker than her enemy and was able to evade Lulubell's advances without much trouble. Caleb stumbled away, flipping back a few pages. He was panting and his jaw was shaking. The surprise attack had frightened him.

"_Reysa_."

"_Haradi_!"

Ophelia completely missed her target and her ice needles shot over their enemies. Lulubell's rose petals passed Ophelia and chose Caleb as their next target. He staggered into a wall to dodge them, huffing, and one scraped his face, breaking through skin, and knocking him to the ground with blunt force. He dropped the book and Ophelia screamed his name.

He was on the ground for over a minute. Ophelia couldn't check up on him as she had to block every one of Lulubell's counterattacks. Ophelia pushed her away and her nails tore into Lulubell's face as she hit her. While distracted, Ophelia bound to the air and kicked her with the ball of her foot. It sent Lulubell reeling into a far wall and Ophelia ran back over to Caleb, touching his shoulder while he was down.

"Caleb–"

"Shut up, I'm fine!" he shouted, batting her hand away. He turned to her with blood dribbling down his face. The cut reached from the middle of his cheekbone to the slope of his jaw. It wasn't serious but it would still scar. "That's it…that's _it_."

Ophelia lifted an eyebrow. "What–"

Caleb ignored her. He retrieved the book and stood his ground. He was seething, spitting his words. Blood continued to drip, running dark and heavy. "You're done, I swear. I went easy on you before but now you're _done_!"

"Bring it on, handsome." Lulubell said with a sadistic smirk. She liked a challenge.

* * *

"_Lebashi_!" Eve screamed.

Sundance jumped in front of her and summoned his circular shield, dripping indigo paint. The daggers burning with blue lightning caught in the paint and dissipated. The mamodo they were battling was older than Sundance but around the same size. He had orange hair, blue eyes, and knives of every size hanging off his belt. There were silver nails and rings drilled into his eyebrows, his mouth.

His partner was younger than Eve, older than Sundance. Her brown eyes were warm, her pale pink book an echo of her innocence. She was eleven, a child of war. So young and impressionable. At eleven, Eve dreamt about Caleb and how he didn't ask for her name when they first met. At seventeen, she dreamt about killing him before anyone else could. It's funny how things change.

Eve shrieked as a dagger with a blade smoking from the fire inside it landed between her feet.

"You okay, Eve?" Sundance called out.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Eve yelled, stepping away from the knife. She didn't mean to sound so rude. Thinking about Caleb really distracted her. "_Lomas Bleez_!"

Sundance's arm became a boomerang and he released it, cracking the mamodo in the head, dizzying him, as it swung around the field in a rainbow-shining arc. It came back to him and became his arm again.

"Damn, almost had her!" The mamodo said, cursing his aim. The boomerang didn't hit him that hard. "Give me another one, Miki!"

"I hear you, Taku! _Daso_!"

Five smoking knives materialized in Taku's hands and he threw all but one at them.

"_Lebashi_!"

Sundance brought forward his shield again and blocked them. Taku came slashing at Sundance with his remaining knife and Sundance led him away from Eve, doing his best at dodging every swing and swipe. He took a direct hit and the blade caught his shoulder, ripping through his sleeve. His blood flashed red and black on the silver. Taku came at Sundance again with the knife, slicing the air blindly. Sundance took the blade in his hand and misdirected it, pushing it away from his heart but receiving a bad cut on his arm.

"_Upra_!"

Sundance blasted Taku with red paint and it burned him, soaking through his clothes. Taku's knife disappeared shortly after and he and Sundance started fighting with their fists. Punching and kicking and grunting and shouting. There was a lot of blood on Sundance's part. They moved to the air, fighting while airborne. Sundance took a punch to the face and spat blood into Taku's face, grinning like a crazy. His teeth were red.

Eve watched with regret. It felt like another battle they couldn't win.

"You'll pay for that," Taku sneered.

"Will I? Don't be so sure. The fight's not over yet." Sundance assured, still grinning. "Eve? A spell?"

"I got you, Sundance. _Lomas Bleez_!"

Sundance shot off his boomerang and it completely missed Miki and Taku, spinning like a wheel into the sun and trees. Eve lifted an eyebrow to Sundance but he shook his head. He was smarter than he looked.

"Ha-ha! You missed!" Taku looked satisfied.

"Not quite."

Neither of them answered as a hoard of trees collapsed over Taku. Miki gasped and clutched the book to her chest, her hands were shaking. Everything was silent and dead. Not even a bird chirped.

Sundance sighed, running back to Eve. He didn't trust the air. "Too easy…"

Miki smiled. "_Lau Daso_!"

But Taku was still not seen. Eve clenched her teeth and squeezed Sundance's book. "What–"

Taku exploded out of the ground, covered in dirt with twigs caught in his hair, vengeance in his eyes. Sundance was thrown to the grass by him and he caught Taku's sword, crackling with electricity, before it could impale him. It electrocuted him, burning his fingers. Eve watched as Sundance's eyes widened, mouth opening in silent protest. He collapsed. His eyes were open but he wasn't moving.

"Sundance, Sundance…_Sundance_!" Eve screamed. She couldn't talk without screaming. "Sundance, please be okay. Please, please, please. Sundance…SUNDANCE!"

Taku tore his sword out of Sundance's lifeless fingers. "Oh, he'll be alright–" He looked at Eve and she saw the bloodlust in his eyes. "Back in the mamodo world."

* * *

"_Reysa_!"

"_Haradi_!"

"_Ralox_!"

"_Harazado_!"

Ophelia was able to cancel out Lulubell's drill made of vines with her ice beetles. Caleb had blood on half of his face, the glow from Ophelia's book accentuating it. He was more alert than he was before, looking around, remaining in control.

Lulubell and Ophelia jumped into hand-to-hand combat. They fought in the air, on the ground. It would definitely be a draw if they were human. Caleb watched with pride and suddenly an idea stole his mind. He thought about sharing it but remembered Lulubell and her observant partner. He couldn't get anywhere near Ophelia without risking an injury.

Caleb used his book to hide the knife. He threw it like a dart and it swung through the battle, hitting a far wall. Luna shrieked, losing her place. Caleb frowned for a moment. He wanted it to hit her.

"You'll pay!" Lulubell snarled, pushing away Ophelia with all her might. Ophelia fell to the ground, scraping a knee. Lulubell ran over to Caleb without the aid of a spell. He was smiling, eager, waiting.

Caleb pointed at himself, taunting the enemy. "Come on down, little girl. I got tattoos that hurt more than this."

Ophelia was on her heels, grabbing Lulubell's shoulder, turning her around. Ophelia swept a leg under her foot and knocked her to the ground next. They scuffled on the ground for a moment's time.

Caleb lifted an eyebrow. He wasn't worried. The book in his hand was shining blue. There were new words on a new page. "Would you look at that? Appears to be a new spell."

* * *

Taku's walk to Eve was terrifying. He walked slowly to exaggerate his power, show how fast he could kill her and burn Sundance's book. She thought about never being to see Sundance again and how fast it would take to end her life. She wondered if anyone would care.

She thought about Caleb and who would save him if she couldn't. Lilja ought to. She knew where he was, she knew how to fight and defend herself. She could recruit an alliance if she wanted. Eve didn't. Sundance wasn't moving and his fingers were twisted, burned to a different color. No one was around. No one would hear her if she screamed.

As if floodgates opened, Eve started crying. She felt disgusted with herself because she wasn't crying for anyone but herself. She felt bad for _herself_. Tears plopped onto the yellow pages and she covered her face with a hand, crooking her fingers over it. "Please, Sundance. _Please_. Just be okay."

Taku raised his sword, blue in the sun, his grin white.

She looked at her feet, holding her breath but not her tears.

"No more crying, okay, Eve? You look really weird when you do."

Eve saw Sundance holding Taku's sword away from her face, grinning bravely. Eve covered her mouth and nodded. Tears ran through her fingers, cold and fast. His book was shining so strong, she couldn't even ignore it. The golden glow burned her eyes. She turned a page and found a new spell.

"Oh my God, a new spell…"

* * *

"_RAU RAMANDO_!"

* * *

"_RAU LAINE_!"

* * *

Caleb's new spell was met with one of Lulubell's own. A beautiful dragon made of black rose petals with clawed feet and long wings. It roared, burning their ears with the sound, as it fired a spiraling black laser from its mouth.

A komodo dragon from Ophelia's spell came into existence with sparkling scales made of ice and dark eyes. It had a sharp tongue and a long tail. It was unpleasant to look at. The hiss it made was loud and animalistic. Caleb smirked as the dragon launched itself forward, bounding on all-fours over to them. The castle was rumbling like they were standing in a street during an earthquake.

Both mamodo collapsed. Caleb coughed as smoke took over the room.

The Komodo dragon hissed again and revealed its teeth, pointy and brown. It fought through the laser and deteriorated through it like smoke. The Komodo dragon sunk its teeth into the rose dragon and another storm of smoke flowed into the room, making the air polluted and gray.

Caleb faded in and out of consciousness. He couldn't see Ophelia through the smoke but he saw someone on the ground, motionless like a corpse.

He hoped it was the human and the thought made him smile.

* * *

Sundance had delivered a chameleon, already a rainbow of color, changing from blue to green to purple and back again. It didn't look at Eve or Sundance but she could've sworn that it had Sundance's eyes, blue ringed with black. The chameleon made no sound at first as it threw itself forward, not touching the ground. The chameleon hissed and jumped over Taku, soaring like a bird, knocking him to the ground with its power.

The chameleon snatched the book out of Miki's hand with its tongue, promptly wrapping around it and ingesting it. They didn't even see it burst into flames. Taku vanished into the air without saying anything. Miki ran off and into a dome of trees. She was crying. The chameleon turned to them and nodded, disappearing shortly after everyone was gone.

"We won." Eve said, turning to Sundance. "We actually won."

"Yeah, we did. We…we actually won. Without anyone's help." Sundance approved. He nodded to himself and hugged Eve. She was so surprised by him throwing his arms around her, she almost collapsed. The spell drained him. Even his voice was tired. "We won, we…we won, we won. We _won_."

Eve threw an arm around him. He smelled like smoke and sweat and dirt. She didn't even want to look at herself. "Great job, Sun. Great job. Let's celebrate our win with showers…and ice cream."

Sundance laughed. "Deal."

* * *

"Take one step near him and your partner's dead."

Caleb opened his eyes. He didn't realize he actually closed them until he saw that the smoke had cleared. Luna was unconscious. Lulubell was steps away from him and Ophelia's book was in his lap, open to the page of their new spell. He didn't know why he was exhausted. He didn't do anything worth sleeping for.

Ophelia had his dagger at Luna's throat. She would kill her. It wouldn't even take a second for her to slash the girl's throat. Lulubell was frozen in fear, looking at him for confirmation like he could tell Ophelia not to. He _could_ but he wouldn't.

"I have a better offer. Why don't you join us? I'm looking forward to taking down humankind with someone other than my partner. Look at them. Don't you hate the humans? Don't they disgust you? They're pawns in our game and they think nothing of us. We're demons, monsters, ogres to them. They're fools to look at us the wrong way. Fight with me and I can show you how to destroy them. Take over this world as our own. What do you say?"

Lulubell was silent. She remained staring at Caleb, her eyes were wide.

"If you say no, I can always burn this pretty book of yours and kill your pretty partner. It wouldn't take long for the sea creatures to feast on her corpse. They would enjoy the meal."

"I…I–"

Caleb didn't want to sleep but it was slowly taking over. Every time he fell asleep, he saw her. He feared her and not because he pitied her. He hated to see her when he closed his eyes because he couldn't sleep through the night. He can't wake up without seeing her face. She wanted too much. She was suffocating. She limited him. She was too nice. There was so much wrong with her.

He's the better person. He was always the better person. There's never been anything wrong with him.

For the first night in a long time, Caleb slept without dreaming.

* * *

**_How's this chapter? It was made kinda weird in some places but I liked the way it turned out. This chapter was meant to show how different and alike Eve and Caleb are. Originally, I was going to have them get back together but that would be really awkward now that I think about it. _**

**_This chapter title is actually from a Skillrex song of the same name. I can't stand Skillrex but this song really seemed to go with the chapter. Take a listen. _**

**_Anyway, enjoy the chapter. R&R!_**


	15. Burn It Down

"That's so cool! Did you really run into a temblor? I never knew they still existed!" Sundance asked in a chirp. He was sitting on the roof of a moving train with Resh and Amera. They were already in Lithuania and the different scenery brought different emotions. "I heard a meteor took them all out months ago, somewhere on Earth."

Amera smiled and softly poked Sundance in the forehead. "Where you heard that rumor, I have no idea but I know good and well that gossip like that travels like rats in the Refuge."

The Refuge was the equivalent of a homeless shelter. Nothing good ever came to it. It was where the corrupted, the mentally ill, and the unwanted lived. People rarely took showers or brushed their teeth. Every family had a room to themselves the size of a linen closet and incurable disease was seen more than food at times. It was a cramped, awful place and someone would rather live on the street than in the Refuge.

Sundance laughed. "Oh come on. I've lived in the Refuge all my life and I've never seen one rat."

"You're very lucky."

Resh scowled. Despite Sundance's acceptance with the place that provided him hospitality being bashed, she didn't like watching. "Didn't you mean to say something else, Sundance?"

Smiles and laughter dissipated. Sundance nodded. "My father…my birth father, I mean. I heard he was one of the scientists to support that whole temblor theory and he even helped draw out the blueprints. But the temblors didn't kill him…he killed himself when they first started malfunctioning. I guess his mind couldn't take a failure. I don't know his name or face but after getting ri–after me, he went on to have a few more kids. Sucks, they'll grow up without a father."

Resh made a face of disgust. "A rotten man in life and death…"

Amera nodded and touched Sundance's shoulders, noticing the change in his character. "Don't feel bad for him, Sundance. He doesn't deserve anyone's pity."

"I don't feel bad," Sundance objected and moved to his feet, smacking away Amera's hand. He started to wobble on the fast-moving train. They passed an abundance of trees that seemed to become one, looking like a long tail of green. "Well, I do, but for his kids. Some of them never got to meet their father."

"Neither did you."

"It's not me, I'm thinking about but I guess that's the way life is." Sundance said.

The train slowed down to a checkpoint and a select number of passengers got off. Sundance looked ahead and saw a girl, a mamodo. She was sitting at the very top of a tree, watching him watch her. Red hair, brown eyes, blue stripes on the face. He knew her. He _knew _her.

Sundance gasped and received the attention of his friends, taking a step closer. "It's y–"

But the train chugged forward before he could say and Sundance lost his ground, flapping his arms to catch himself. He flipped upside-down, screaming, flailing. Someone yelled his name and Amera lunged forward, grabbing his ankles before he was gone for good.

He forgot the mystery girl's name and face in a second. Sundance screamed at his friends while hanging upside-down, his heart pumping through his chest.

"The blood is rushing to my head!" Sundance yelped, holding his head, rocking in the air. "Can _someone_ help me up already?"

* * *

"_I don_'_t think I can take this_…"

"_Stop being so nice and you_'_ll be able to_."

* * *

Before purchasing the plane ticket for Lithuania, Eve had received a letter in the mail with no return address. Inside of the envelope were reservations to a five-star hotel in Vilnius, the closest to Trakai Island Castle, and a message.

_Congrats on your win_._ Wish I was there to see_._ As a celebratory gift_,_ take this_._ Meet you in Lithuania_,_ dollface_.

–_L _&_ V_

So when Eve arrived in the hotel with Kyo and Phil and their mamodo, she wasn't baffled to see Lilja sitting on a chaise lounge in the lobby. A chartreuse book in her lap, a ballooned white dress, her nails like claws, long and curled, and a necklace with a gold bird charm. There was something like a tattoo on her neck but Eve couldn't be sure. Viola wasn't in sight but Eve knew not to touch her book unless she wanted to risk another injury.

"Don't you all look sweet?" Lilja asked, smiling. She addressed Phil and Kyo along with their mamodo. "It is so nice to meet you all, I am Lilja. I assume Eve has told you all about me."

"Actually, I haven't."

"Oh wow. That really hurts my heart."

"Does it? You know what really hurt my heart? My wrist when you broke it."

"I fractured it and only out of self-defense."

"You know what–"

Phil turned to Kyo. "Sometimes I just don't ask."

Kyo nodded, making a face. "Agreed. Let's go eat some food before we're caught up in this mess. Come on, Resh, Amera. Sundance?"

"I'll stay here."

"That's all I'm saying! You didn't have to fracture it. Have you ever had your wrist fractured? It hurts." Eve protested, bringing a hand to the wrist. She touched it briefly before sighing, looking back at Lilja. "Anyway, why are you here? I thought you worked alone."

"Oh I do but I'm making an exception just this once," Lilja explained, smiling like normal. "Viola is currently scoping out the area and I see that you've built an alliance of your own. I wouldn't exactly call it ironclad but it _is_ something."

Eve touched her chest and made an offended face. "Are you insulting my entourage?"

"Just questioning it," Lilja shrugged.

"A good part of my alliance is missing." Eve said. "Seiku and Ishimaru have school so they couldn't be on the same flight as us. They're supposed to be here tomorrow morning so we'll be going to take down Ophelia and…Caleb the morning of."

Lilja nodded. She glanced at Eve with the corner of one eye. "If your plan remains intact by morning, I will be surprised."

"Why wouldn't it? It's been going good so far, very ironclad." Eve shared with a smile. Sundance looked at her and beamed. Seeing him smile made her think of her mother and her ability to make the people around her smile even when things were bad. She knew how to get her words through to someone's heart and make them smile while they were in pain. There was no one like her.

Eve cut her smile. Still, it hurt to think about her.

"Just wait until tomorrow." Lilja whispered.

Sundance turned to her. "What did you say?"

"Oh, just talking to myself."

Viola burst into the lobby on that second. She was tracking dirt into the hotel and there was a gash on her cheek that was streaming with blood. A hotel employee holding a vacuum watched Viola with scorn.

"Viola, update," Lilja said coldly.

She nodded at her book-reader. "Yes…we have to get out of here. They saw me, a boy in Trakai Castle saw me. The one from before with the old-man face, Ophelia's partner...reinforcements, danger, we're in danger–"

"Spit it _out_, Viola."

Sundance's ears perked and he glanced toward the door. A woman was walking her child over to the window, showing him the outside through glass, pointing out the little things. Sundance started to run, adrenaline propelling his legs. He grabbed the mother, ripping her away from her child. The child wailed, tears without blinking, screaming for his mother.

"Danger, coming for us," Viola gasped.

Viola had no reason to finish now. Smoke and plaster and glass rocketed through the building. Eve couldn't see anyone so she covered her ears against the screaming.

* * *

"_I don_'_t know what to do_! _Please help me_!"

"_Figure it out yourself_. _I won_'_t always be around to pick you up when you fall_."

* * *

Lilja grabbed Eve's arm, throwing her forward. She didn't see her face but the Icelandic accent wasn't hard to forget. "Remember what I told you about teamwork? Go! Do something!"

Eve staggered, running through the smoke and dust. There was a crying coming from somewhere and Eve was able to see the child without his mother on the ground in a fetal position, sobbing and astonishingly unscathed. She lifted him into her arms and ran for an exit. He was lighter than Sundance but was crying too hard.

It was chaos outside. There were two mamodo with their partners, a girl with roses in her pink hair and an eye-patch over one eye. The other had mid-length black hair and red eyes, appearing to be bored, uninterested in the fight. He wore a black jacket with a hood, a red shirt, a gray hat and cargo shorts of the same color, and red-black sneakers. She couldn't see their partners through the smoke but she heard their voices, there was a boy and a girl.

"_Kuraza_!"

"_Ezo_!"

With a spear made of shadow materialized in his hand, the boy mamodo came running until Viola fought him off with her crossbow. The weapons clashed with a _clang. _Viola let out an animalistic scream and swung her crossbow at her enemy like a club. She got him in the face and the attack sent him reeling into the gray. She chased after him and they were already toppling over one another in a scuffle, punching and kicking.

"Sundance!" Eve screamed.

"I'm here!" Sundance screamed back. "But I can't right now! I have to help the people!"

"Llmol!"

A vine that appeared out of nowhere struck out and wrapped around Eve's ankle, keeping her from running. Thorns dug into her skin like spikes. Before she fell, she made sure that the child had safe ground before she collapsed over him, grabbing his shirt to get him to his feet but he clung to her, desperate. He was crying harder.

"Go, run! Get out of here!" Eve yelled, prying him off. "Go! GO!"

"Eve, I'm coming!" Sundance was closer. The vine crawled up her leg, squeezing it, dragging her.

"_Quarrelo Ezo_!"

Viola was still fending off the boy mamodo. Civilians were screaming and crying. The child remained clinging to Eve.

"_Haradi_!"

Rose petals with the sharpest edges were trundling toward Eve. She covered the child, opened Sundance's book and shouted with her greatest desperation.

"_Lomas Bleez_!"

Sundance's rainbow boomerang swung over them and demolished the rose petals, curling through the smoke as Sundance ran over to her, breathing deep and covered in dirt.

"What would you do without me?" Sundance asked, laughing through the chaos.

"No idea." Eve smiled.

* * *

"_I_'_ve had it_!"

"_Now you_'_re getting it_."

* * *

**_Shorter chapter but there's going to be a lot of battle going on through the next few. There may be a late update but that is because my last exam is this week and I'm crossing my fingers to my final grades. Wish me luck!_**

**_The song to this chapter is 'Burn it Down' by Linkin Park._**

**_R&R!_**


End file.
